Best PlacesRays Crossing, IN Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Rays Crossing, 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.
Rays Crossing ranks 11,126th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. The weather pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on what local pay buys.
The best neighborhoods in Rays Crossing
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.
Rays Crossing's strengths and weaknesses
Where Rays Crossing ranks high
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 90% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 90% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 88% of towns
- Household income$99,397 median, better than 84% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 84% of towns
Where Rays Crossing ranks low
- Nice weatherabout 56 pleasant days a year, better than only 4% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 11% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 11% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 18% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Rays Crossing
A household needs to earn about $66,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Rays Crossing home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $99,397, 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 Rays Crossing's effective rate of 0.64%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Rays Crossing
Rays Crossing runs older than the country, 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 Rays Crossing.
Who works in Rays Crossing, and how
Work in Rays Crossing centers on public administration and agriculture & forestry. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 59%
- Work from home 33%
- Transit, walk, or bike 8%
Life in Rays Crossing
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Rays Crossing.
What the weather is like in Rays Crossing, month by month
Rays Crossing sees roughly 56 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 41, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs April through June and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 41° | 32° | 23° |
| April | 69° | 55° | 42° |
| July | 88° | 77° | 66° |
| October | 73° | 58° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Rays Crossing
Indianapolis International sits about 34 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 5.2 million passengers in 2025, with 92 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Rays Crossing
Schools across Rays Crossing average a B, better than 66% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Waldron Elementary SchoolA− · 57% proficient
Top middle schools
- Shelbyville Middle SchoolB− · 42% proficient
Top high schools
- Morristown Jr-sr High SchoolB · 48% proficient
- Shelbyville Sr High SchoolB− · 40% proficient
- Waldron Jr-sr High SchoolC+ · 35% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Rays Crossing school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Rays Crossing 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 Rays Crossing against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Rays Crossing
Is Rays Crossing a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Rays Crossing ranks 11,126th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on what local pay buys, cheap car insurance, and health care access, and lowest on the weather and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Rays Crossing expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $256,400. The overall cost of living runs about 16% below the national average. Set against a $99,397 median income, cost of living beats 90% of towns.
Is Rays Crossing safe?
Rays Crossing is safer than 50% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $259 per resident a year.
Compare Rays Crossing with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Rays Crossing. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Rays Crossing 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.
Rays Crossing detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Rays Crossing: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Rays Crossing: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Rays Crossing: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Rays Crossing: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Rays Crossing 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.