Best PlacesMingo, IA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Mingo, 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.
Mingo ranks 5,986th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on what local pay buys by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Mingo
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.
Mingo's strengths and weaknesses
Where Mingo ranks high
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 97% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than 94% of towns
- Household income$105,700 median, better than 88% of towns
- School gradeA−, better than 84% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 84% of towns
Where Mingo ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 11% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 17% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 23% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 24% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 37% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Mingo
A household needs to earn about $81,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Mingo home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $105,700, 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 Mingo's effective rate of 1.11%, 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 Mingo
Mingo runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Mingo.
Who works in Mingo, and how
Work in Mingo centers on finance & insurance and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 86%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 1%
Life in Mingo
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Mingo.
What the weather is like in Mingo, month by month
Mingo sees roughly 122 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 32, with lows near 15. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 32° | 22° | 15° |
| April | 64° | 50° | 39° |
| July | 86° | 74° | 65° |
| October | 66° | 53° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Mingo
The nearest airport, Des Moines International, is about 26 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Eppley Airfield, about 139 miles away.
The best schools in and around Mingo
Schools across Mingo average an A−, better than 84% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Thomas Jefferson Elementary SchoolA · 68% proficient
- Baxter Elementary SchoolA · 65% proficient
- Colfax-mingo Elementary SchoolA · 63% proficient
Top middle schools
- Bondurant - Farrar Intermediate SchoolA+ · 72% proficient
Top high schools
- Bondurant-farrar High SchoolA · 76% proficient
- Newton Senior High SchoolB+ · 58% proficient
- Colfax-mingo Jr/sr High SchoolB+ · 55% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Mingo school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Mingo 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 Mingo against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Mingo
Is Mingo a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Mingo ranks 5,986th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on what local pay buys, state finances, and high incomes, and lowest on noise and tree cover. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Mingo expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $295,435. The overall cost of living runs about 23% below the national average. Set against a $105,700 median income, cost of living beats 97% of towns.
Is Mingo safe?
Yes, Mingo is safer than 67% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $241 per resident a year.
Compare Mingo with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Mingo. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Mingo 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.
Mingo detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Mingo: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Mingo: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Mingo: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Mingo: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Mingo 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.