Best PlacesPrairie Home, NE Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Prairie Home, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Prairie Home ranks 3,355th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on state finances by a wide margin, and tree cover ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Prairie Home
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.
Prairie Home's strengths and weaknesses
Where Prairie Home ranks high
- State fiscal healthBetter than 99% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 96% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 96% of towns
- Household income$126,741 median, better than 94% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 92% of towns
Where Prairie Home ranks low
- Tree shadeBetter than only 11% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 12% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 15% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 16% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Prairie Home
A household needs to earn about $154,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Prairie Home home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $126,741, so buying stretches a typical household.
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 Prairie Home's effective rate of 1.31%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Prairie Home
Prairie Home runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Prairie Home.
Who works in Prairie Home, and how
Work in Prairie Home centers on education and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 89%
- Work from home 7%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Prairie Home
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Prairie Home.
What the weather is like in Prairie Home, month by month
Prairie Home sees roughly 126 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 36, with lows near 17. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 36° | 25° | 17° |
| April | 68° | 51° | 39° |
| July | 88° | 75° | 66° |
| October | 69° | 53° | 42° |
Flying in and out of Prairie Home
The nearest airport, Lincoln, is about 13 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Eppley Airfield, about 44 miles away.
The best schools in and around Prairie Home
Schools across Prairie Home average an A−, better than 85% of towns.
Top middle schools
- Glenwood Middle SchoolA+ · 73% proficient
- Woodrow Wilson Middle SchoolB+ · 51% proficient
Top high schools
- Glenwood Senior High SchoolA · 70% proficient
- Weeping Water High SchoolA− · 60% proficient
- Thomas Jefferson High SchoolB− · 45% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Prairie Home school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Prairie Home 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 Prairie Home against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Prairie Home
Is Prairie Home a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Prairie Home ranks 3,355th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on state finances, what local pay buys, and population health, and lowest on tree cover and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Prairie Home expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $551,043. The overall cost of living runs about 8% below the national average. Set against a $126,741 median income, cost of living beats 96% of towns.
Is Prairie Home safe?
Prairie Home is safer than 34% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $350 per resident a year.
Compare Prairie Home with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Prairie Home. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Prairie Home 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.
Prairie Home detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Prairie Home: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Prairie Home: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Prairie Home: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Prairie Home: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Prairie Home 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.