Best PlacesPorter, IN Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Porter, 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.
Porter ranks 10,449th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on fast internet by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Porter
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.
Porter's strengths and weaknesses
Where Porter ranks high
- Internet speedBetter than 96% of towns
- BikingBetter than 96% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 95% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 86% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 85% of towns
Where Porter ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 1% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 22% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 22% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,024 a month, better than only 23% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 31% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Porter
A household needs to earn about $70,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Porter home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $82,576, 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 Porter's effective rate of 1.01%, 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 Porter
Porter's age mix sits close to the national median, 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 Porter.
Who works in Porter, and how
Work in Porter centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 83%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Porter
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Porter.
What the weather is like in Porter, month by month
Porter sees roughly 91 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 34, with lows near 21. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 34° | 27° | 21° |
| April | 61° | 49° | 39° |
| July | 85° | 74° | 65° |
| October | 66° | 55° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Porter
Chicago Midway International sits about 37 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 9.4 million passengers in 2025, with 113 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Porter
Schools across Porter average a B, better than 71% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Brummitt Elementary SchoolA− · 60% proficient
- Bailly Elementary SchoolB+ · 53% proficient
- Discovery Charter SchoolB · 46% proficient
Top middle schools
- Chesterton Middle SchoolB+ · 50% proficient
Top high schools
- Chesterton Senior High SchoolB+ · 56% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Porter school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Porter 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 Porter against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Porter
Is Porter a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Porter ranks 10,449th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on fast internet, biking, and big-city access, and lowest on noise and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Porter expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $260,327. The overall cost of living runs about 3% below the national average. Set against a $82,576 median income, cost of living beats 58% of towns.
Is Porter safe?
Yes, Porter is safer than 80% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $189 per resident a year.
Compare Porter with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Porter. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Porter 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.
Porter detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Porter: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Porter: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Porter: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Porter: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Porter 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.