Best PlacesMaple Leaf, SD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Maple Leaf, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Maple Leaf ranks 48,227th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and crime is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Maple Leaf
BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.
Maple Leaf's strengths and weaknesses
Where Maple Leaf ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 98% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 98% of towns
- Short commute19.1 minutes each way, better than 90% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 90% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 138 pleasant days a year, better than 88% of towns
Where Maple Leaf ranks low
- Crime safetyBetter than only 2% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 2% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 2% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 3% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 3% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Maple Leaf
A household needs to earn about $18,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Maple Leaf home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $40,002, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
Where the monthly payment goes
Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses Maple Leaf's effective rate of 1.23%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 4 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Maple Leaf
Maple Leaf runs younger than the country, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Maple Leaf.
Who works in Maple Leaf, and how
Work in Maple Leaf centers on agriculture & forestry and education. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 73%
- Work from home 23%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Maple Leaf
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Maple Leaf.
What the weather is like in Maple Leaf, month by month
Maple Leaf sees roughly 138 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 29, with lows near 10. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 29° | 18° | 10° |
| April | 59° | 44° | 32° |
| July | 89° | 75° | 63° |
| October | 62° | 48° | 38° |
Flying in and out of Maple Leaf
The nearest airport, Bismarck Municipal, is about 60 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 382 miles away.
The best schools in and around Maple Leaf
Schools across Maple Leaf average a D, better than 8% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Mcintosh Elementary - 02D+ · 25% proficient
- Mclaughlin Elementary - 02F · 10% proficient
Top middle schools
- Mcintosh Middle School - 03A+ · 75% proficient
- Mclaughlin Middle School - 03F · 11% proficient
Top high schools
- Mcintosh High School - 01A · 75% proficient
- Mclaughlin High School - 01F · 10% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Maple Leaf school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Maple Leaf measure by measure
Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare Maple Leaf against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Maple Leaf
Is Maple Leaf a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Maple Leaf ranks 48,227th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on clean air, low taxes, and short commutes, and lowest on crime and tree cover. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Maple Leaf expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $65,148. The overall cost of living runs about 20% below the national average. Set against a $40,002 median income, cost of living beats 3% of towns.
Is Maple Leaf safe?
Maple Leaf is safer than 2% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $991 per resident a year.
Compare Maple Leaf with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Maple Leaf. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Maple Leaf represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.
Maple Leaf detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Maple Leaf: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Maple Leaf: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Maple Leaf: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Maple Leaf: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Maple Leaf detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.