Best PlacesMendota Heights, MN Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Mendota Heights, 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.
Mendota Heights ranks 711th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on health care access by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Mendota Heights
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.
Mendota Heights' strengths and weaknesses
Where Mendota Heights ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 99% of towns
- BikingBetter than 99% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 98% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 98% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 96% of towns
Where Mendota Heights ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,682 a month, better than only 1% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 2% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 20% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 41% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 42% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Mendota Heights
A household needs to earn about $139,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Mendota Heights home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $134,600; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Mendota Heights' effective rate of 0.84%, 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 Mendota Heights
Mendota Heights runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Mendota Heights.
Who works in Mendota Heights, and how
Work in Mendota Heights centers on health care & social and professional & technical. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 66%
- Work from home 30%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Mendota Heights
Mendota Heights has more parkland per resident than 99% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Mendota Heights and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Mendota Heights, month by month
Mendota Heights sees roughly 109 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 26, with lows near 12. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 26° | 19° | 12° |
| April | 57° | 46° | 37° |
| July | 85° | 74° | 65° |
| October | 60° | 50° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Mendota Heights
Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain sits about 5 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 Mendota Heights
Schools across Mendota Heights average a B+, better than 82% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Mendota ElementaryA+ · 78% proficient
- Somerset ElementaryA · 63% proficient
- Pilot Knob Stem Magnet SchoolB · 48% proficient
Top middle schools
- Friendly Hills MiddleB · 43% proficient
- Heritage E-stem Magnet SchoolB− · 41% proficient
Top high schools
- Two Rivers High SchoolB+ · 57% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Mendota Heights school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Mendota Heights 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 Mendota Heights against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Mendota Heights
Is Mendota Heights a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Mendota Heights ranks 711th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on health care access, biking, and an educated workforce, and lowest on childcare costs and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Mendota Heights expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $527,216. The overall cost of living runs about 7% below the national average. Set against a $134,600 median income, cost of living beats 98% of towns.
Is Mendota Heights safe?
Yes, Mendota Heights is safer than 66% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $265 per resident a year.
Compare Mendota Heights with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Mendota Heights. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Mendota Heights 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.
Mendota Heights detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Mendota Heights: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Mendota Heights: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Mendota Heights: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Mendota Heights: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Mendota Heights 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.