Best PlacesMinot, ND Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Minot metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Costs and crime both read low, and the nearest big city is a drive away. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Bobak Ha'Eri, CC BY 3.0, via commons
Minot ranks 57th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It earns the spot by being affordable and steady rather than flashy: everyday costs run well below the national average, and crime is low. The trade is distance from a big city: the nearest large city and its jobs, flights, and culture are a drive away.
The best neighborhoods in the Minot metro
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.
Minot's strengths and weaknesses
Minot ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Heat safety, clean air, and cell coverage carry most of that.
The one real hole is distance from a big city, near the bottom of the country. Tree cover and transit also cost it ground. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Minot ranks high
- Heat safetyBetter than 92% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than 91% of metro areas
- Cell coverageBetter than 89% of metro areas
- Crime safetyBetter than 86% of metro areas
- Nice weatherabout 147 pleasant days a year, better than 86% of metro areas
Where Minot ranks low
- Big-city accessBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than only 8% of metro areas
- TransitBetter than only 13% of metro areas
- Low vacancyBetter than only 14% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than only 24% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Minot
A household needs to earn about $73,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Minot home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $83,613, 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 Minot's effective rate of 1.04%, 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 Minot
Minot runs younger 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 Minot.
Who works in Minot, and how
Work in Minot centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 89%
- Work from home 7%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Minot
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Minot.
Is Minot growing, and who is moving in?
Minot has lost about 2% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from McKenzie County, ND.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Minot go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Minot, month by month
Minot sees roughly 147 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 24, with lows near 7. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 24° | 15° | 7° |
| April | 55° | 41° | 30° |
| July | 86° | 72° | 60° |
| October | 57° | 45° | 36° |
Flying in and out of Minot
The nearest airport, Minot International, is about 2 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 448 miles away.
The best schools in and around Minot
Schools across Minot average a B−, better than 61% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Bel Air Elementary SchoolB+ · 53% proficient
- Bell Elementary SchoolB+ · 52% proficient
- Burlington-des Lacs Elementary SchoolB · 50% proficient
Top middle schools
- Jim Hill Middle SchoolB+ · 50% proficient
- Erik Ramstad Middle SchoolB · 46% proficient
- Central MiddleB− · 41% proficient
Top high schools
- Des Lacs-burlington High SchoolB · 50% proficient
- North Shore Plaza High SchoolB · 50% proficient
- Surrey High SchoolC+ · 35% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Minot school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Minot 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 Minot against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Minot suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 82% of metro areas and 7% already work from home.
Retirees
The weather beats 86% of metro areas, health care access beats 70%, and it is quieter than 62%.
Common questions about living in Minot
Is Minot a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Minot ranks 57th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on heat safety, clean air, and cell coverage, and lowest on distance from a big city and tree cover. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Minot expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $268,456. The overall cost of living runs about 15% below the national average. Set against a $83,613 median income, cost of living beats 82% of metro areas.
Is Minot safe?
Yes, Minot is safer than 86% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $324 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Minot?
July highs average about 86 degrees, and January highs near 24 with lows near 7. That works out to about 147 pleasant days a year, more than 86% of metro areas.
Is Minot good for families?
Schools beat 61% of metro areas, crime safety beats 86%, and childcare runs $973 a month.
Is Minot good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 82% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 24% of metro areas. About 7% of workers already work from home.
Compare Minot with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Minot. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Minot 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.
Minot detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Minot: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Minot: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Minot: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Minot: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Minot 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.