Best PlacesMayer, MN Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Mayer, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Mayer ranks 2,215th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cell coverage by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Mayer
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.
Mayer's strengths and weaknesses
Where Mayer ranks high
- Cell coverageBetter than 98% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 95% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 95% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than 94% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 93% of towns
Where Mayer ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,682 a month, better than only 1% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 20% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 26% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 33% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 37% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Mayer
A household needs to earn about $103,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Mayer home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $118,211, 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 Mayer's effective rate of 0.91%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Mayer
Mayer runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Mayer.
Who works in Mayer, and how
Work in Mayer centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 1%
Life in Mayer
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Mayer.
What the weather is like in Mayer, month by month
Mayer sees roughly 90 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 25, with lows near 10. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 25° | 17° | 10° |
| April | 55° | 44° | 35° |
| July | 84° | 73° | 63° |
| October | 59° | 49° | 41° |
Flying in and out of Mayer
Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain sits about 33 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 17.5 million passengers in 2025, with 195 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Mayer
Schools across Mayer average a B+, better than 78% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Bayview ElementaryA · 71% proficient
- Watertown-mayer Elementary SchoolB · 50% proficient
- Central ElementaryB · 50% proficient
Top middle schools
- Waconia Middle SchoolB+ · 50% proficient
- Watertown-mayer MiddleB · 45% proficient
- Central MiddleC · 33% proficient
Top high schools
- Watertown Mayer HighA− · 67% proficient
- Waconia High SchoolA− · 60% proficient
- Central Senior HighB− · 42% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Mayer school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Mayer 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 Mayer against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Mayer
Is Mayer a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Mayer ranks 2,215th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cell coverage, heat safety, and population health, and lowest on childcare costs and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Mayer expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $388,516. The overall cost of living runs about 4% below the national average. Set against a $118,211 median income, cost of living beats 93% of towns.
Is Mayer safe?
Yes, Mayer is safer than 86% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $199 per resident a year.
Compare Mayer with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Mayer. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Mayer 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.
Mayer detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Mayer: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Mayer: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Mayer: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Mayer: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Mayer 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.