Best PlacesNead, IN Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Nead, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Nead ranks 22,068th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. The weather pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on cheap car insurance.
The best neighborhoods in Nead
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.
Nead's strengths and weaknesses
Where Nead ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 90% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 85% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 84% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 80% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 80% of towns
Where Nead ranks low
- Nice weatherabout 57 pleasant days a year, better than only 5% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 6% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 14% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 15% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Nead
A household needs to earn about $47,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Nead home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $67,088, 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 Nead's effective rate of 0.48%, 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 5 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Nead
Nead runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Nead.
Who works in Nead, and how
Work in Nead centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 75%
- Work from home 6%
- Transit, walk, or bike 18%
Life in Nead
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Nead.
What the weather is like in Nead, month by month
Nead sees roughly 57 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 36, with lows near 19. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 36° | 28° | 19° |
| April | 64° | 51° | 39° |
| July | 86° | 74° | 63° |
| October | 69° | 56° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Nead
The nearest airport, Fort Wayne International, is about 52 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Indianapolis International, about 68 miles away.
The best schools in and around Nead
Schools across Nead average a C+, better than 45% of towns.
Top middle schools
- Maconaquah Middle SchoolD · 23% proficient
Top high schools
- Maconaquah High SchoolB · 48% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Nead school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Nead 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 Nead against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Nead
Is Nead a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Nead ranks 22,068th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, low disaster risk, and a strong job market, and lowest on the weather and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Nead expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $189,046. The overall cost of living runs about 23% below the national average. Set against a $67,088 median income, cost of living beats 62% of towns.
Is Nead safe?
Nead is safer than 48% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $264 per resident a year.
Compare Nead with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Nead. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Nead 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.
Nead detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Nead: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Nead: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Nead: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Nead: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Nead 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.