Best PlacesPayne, IA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Payne, 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.
Payne ranks 20,181st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on state finances by a wide margin, and the weather ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Payne
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.
Payne's strengths and weaknesses
Where Payne ranks high
- State fiscal healthBetter than 94% of towns
- School gradeA−, better than 84% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 82% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 82% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 81% of towns
Where Payne ranks low
- Nice weatherabout 56 pleasant days a year, better than only 3% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 3% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 8% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 31% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Payne
A household needs to earn about $40,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Payne home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $70,096, 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 Payne's effective rate of 1.00%, 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 Payne
Payne runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Payne.
Who works in Payne, and how
Work in Payne centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 91%
- Work from home 4%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Payne
Payne has more restaurants and bars per resident than 99% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Payne and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Payne, month by month
Payne sees roughly 56 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 35, with lows near 19. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 35° | 26° | 19° |
| April | 66° | 52° | 42° |
| July | 86° | 76° | 67° |
| October | 67° | 55° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Payne
Eppley Airfield sits about 43 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 2.6 million passengers in 2025, with 73 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Payne
Schools across Payne average an A−, better than 84% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Sidney Elementary SchoolA− · 58% proficient
- Marnie Simons Elementary SchoolB− · 44% proficient
Top high schools
- Sidney High SchoolA− · 60% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Payne school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Payne 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 Payne against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Payne
Is Payne a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Payne ranks 20,181st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on state finances, good schools, and low crime, and lowest on the weather and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Payne expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $150,139. The overall cost of living runs about 22% below the national average. Set against a $70,096 median income, cost of living beats 66% of towns.
Is Payne safe?
Yes, Payne is safer than 82% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $192 per resident a year.
Compare Payne with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Payne. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Payne 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.
Payne detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Payne: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Payne: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Payne: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Payne: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Payne 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.