Best PlacesPolo, SD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Polo, 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.
Polo ranks 4,743rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and tree cover ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Polo
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.
Polo's strengths and weaknesses
Where Polo ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 98% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 98% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 97% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 96% of towns
- Household income$123,056 median, better than 94% of towns
Where Polo ranks low
- Tree shadeBetter than only 2% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 3% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 8% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 18% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Polo
A household needs to earn about $44,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Polo home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $123,056, 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 Polo's effective rate of 0.75%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Polo
Polo runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Polo.
Who works in Polo, and how
Work in Polo centers on agriculture & forestry and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 65%
- Work from home 28%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Polo
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Polo.
What the weather is like in Polo, month by month
Polo sees roughly 122 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 29, with lows near 7. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 29° | 17° | 7° |
| April | 60° | 45° | 32° |
| July | 88° | 74° | 61° |
| October | 64° | 48° | 36° |
Flying in and out of Polo
The nearest airport, Aberdeen Regional, is about 57 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 286 miles away.
The best schools in and around Polo
Schools across Polo average a C, better than 40% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Miller Elementary - 02A− · 60% proficient
- Faulkton Elementary - 02B− · 40% proficient
- Browns Valley ElementaryC− · 30% proficient
Top middle schools
- Browns Valley MiddleC+ · 37% proficient
- Faulkton Middle School - 08D · 21% proficient
- Miller Jr. High - 04D · 20% proficient
Top high schools
- Faulkton High School - 01A− · 60% proficient
- Miller High School - 01C+ · 40% proficient
- Redfield High School - 01F · 11% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Polo school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Polo 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 Polo against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Polo
Is Polo a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Polo ranks 4,743rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on clean air, low taxes, and what local pay buys, and lowest on tree cover 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 Polo expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $169,700. The overall cost of living runs about 13% below the national average. Set against a $123,056 median income, cost of living beats 97% of towns.
Is Polo safe?
Polo is safer than 44% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $368 per resident a year.
Compare Polo with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Polo. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Polo 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.
Polo detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Polo: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Polo: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Polo: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Polo: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Polo 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.