Best PlacesPrior Lake, MN Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Prior Lake, 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.
Prior Lake ranks 44th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on civic engagement by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Prior Lake
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.
Prior Lake's strengths and weaknesses
Where Prior Lake ranks high
- Voter turnoutBetter than 98% of cities
- Crime safetyBetter than 98% of cities
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 96% of cities
- Heat safetyBetter than 94% of cities
- Healthcare accessBetter than 91% of cities
Where Prior Lake ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,682 a month, better than only 8% of cities
- WalkabilityBetter than only 13% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 28% of cities
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 40% of cities
- TransitBetter than only 40% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Prior Lake
A household needs to earn about $131,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Prior Lake home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $141,147, 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 Prior Lake's effective rate of 0.90%, 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 Prior Lake
Prior Lake's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Prior Lake.
Who works in Prior Lake, and how
Work in Prior Lake centers on manufacturing and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 73%
- Work from home 24%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Prior Lake
Prior Lake has more parkland per resident than 90% of cities. That concentrates in some parts of Prior Lake and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Prior Lake, month by month
Prior Lake sees roughly 131 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 26, with lows near 11. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 26° | 18° | 11° |
| April | 57° | 46° | 37° |
| July | 85° | 75° | 65° |
| October | 60° | 50° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Prior Lake
Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain sits about 15 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 17.5 million passengers in 2025, with 195 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Prior Lake
Schools across Prior Lake average a B+, better than 78% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Westwood ElementaryA · 69% proficient
- Jeffers Pond ElementaryA · 67% proficient
- Redtail Ridge Elementary SchoolA · 64% proficient
Top middle schools
- Jordan MiddleA− · 54% proficient
- New Prague Middle SchoolA− · 52% proficient
- Mcguire MiddleB+ · 49% proficient
Top high schools
- New Prague Senior HighA− · 66% proficient
- Prior Lake High SchoolA− · 62% proficient
- Lakeville South HighA− · 59% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Prior Lake school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Prior Lake 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 Prior Lake against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Prior Lake suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 96% of cities and 24% already work from home.
Retirees
The weather beats 75% of cities, health care access beats 91%, and it is quieter than 84%.
Common questions about living in Prior Lake
Is Prior Lake a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Prior Lake ranks 44th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on civic engagement, low crime, and what local pay buys, and lowest on childcare costs and walkability. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Prior Lake expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $492,627. The overall cost of living runs about 7% below the national average. Set against a $141,147 median income, cost of living beats 96% of cities.
Is Prior Lake safe?
Yes, Prior Lake is safer than 98% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $169 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Prior Lake?
July highs average about 85 degrees, and January highs near 26 with lows near 11. That works out to about 131 pleasant days a year, more than 75% of cities.
Is Prior Lake good for families?
Schools beat 78% of cities, crime safety beats 98%, and childcare runs $1,682 a month.
Compare Prior Lake with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Prior Lake. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Prior Lake 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.
Prior Lake detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Prior Lake: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Prior Lake: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Prior Lake: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Prior Lake: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Prior Lake 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.