Best PlacesNew Town, ND Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around New Town, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
New Town ranks 33,436th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on heat safety by a wide margin, and the schools rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in New Town
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.
New Town's strengths and weaknesses
Where New Town ranks high
- Heat safetyBetter than 97% of towns
- Short commute16.2 minutes each way, better than 96% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 96% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 93% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 92% of towns
Where New Town ranks low
- School gradeF, better than only 1% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 3% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 6% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 6% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in New Town
A household needs to earn about $59,000 a year to comfortably buy the median New Town home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $62,995, 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 New Town's effective rate of 0.27%, 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 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in New Town
New Town runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for New Town.
Who works in New Town, and how
Work in New Town centers on education and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 91%
- Work from home 2%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in New Town
New Town has more restaurants and bars per resident than 92% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of New Town and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in New Town, month by month
New Town sees roughly 118 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 23, with lows near 4. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 23° | 13° | 4° |
| April | 54° | 39° | 28° |
| July | 83° | 69° | 57° |
| October | 56° | 43° | 33° |
Flying in and out of New Town
The nearest airport, Minot International, is about 59 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 490 miles away.
The best schools in and around New Town
Schools across New Town average an F, better than 1% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Badlands Elementary SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
- Ray Elementary SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
- Stanley Elementary SchoolC · 34% proficient
Top middle schools
- New Town Middle SchoolF · 6% proficient
Top high schools
- Ray High SchoolB− · 40% proficient
- Tioga High SchoolC− · 30% proficient
- Stanley High SchoolC− · 30% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every New Town school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
New Town 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 New Town against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in New Town
Is New Town a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, New Town ranks 33,436th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on heat safety, short commutes, and low property taxes, and lowest on the schools and distance from a big city. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is New Town expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $245,007. The overall cost of living runs about 9% below the national average. Set against a $62,995 median income, cost of living beats 26% of towns.
Is New Town safe?
New Town is safer than 10% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $707 per resident a year.
Compare New Town with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to New Town. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in New Town 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.
New Town detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for New Town: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in New Town: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of New Town: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in New Town: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
New Town 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.