Best PlacesRochester, MN Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Rochester metro, 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.
Photo by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, photographer not specified or unknown, via commons
Rochester ranks 7th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It does not top any single list, but it lands above the national middle on health care access and what local pay buys. The weaker spots are childcare costs, taxes, and property taxes.
The best neighborhoods in the Rochester metro
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.
The best areas in Rochester
The towns and districts of the Rochester metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Kasson, Byron & Dodge Center
More households have young kids, incomes run higher, and local pay stretches further.
Oronoco
Fewer homes sit empty and crime runs lower.
Downtown Rochester
Biking is better, though it is noisier.
Lake City
Tree cover is thicker, though streets are more car-dependent.
Eyota
Fewer adults hold degrees and commutes are longer.
Hayfield
Schools score lower.
Stewartville & Spring Valley
Advertised internet is slower and prices have run up more.
Chatfield
Homes cost less, though health outcomes score lower.
Plainview & Wabasha
Disaster risk is higher.
Scores across Rochester run from about the 18th to the 100th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Rochester's strengths and weaknesses
Rochester ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Health care access, what local pay buys, and low crime carry most of that.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Childcare costs, taxes, and property taxes hold the score down. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Rochester ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 97% of metro areas
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 95% of metro areas
- Crime safetyBetter than 93% of metro areas
- Heat safetyBetter than 93% of metro areas
- Voter turnoutBetter than 92% of metro areas
Where Rochester ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,460 a month, better than only 7% of metro areas
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 19% of metro areas
- Low property taxBetter than only 38% of metro areas
- TransitBetter than only 38% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than only 42% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Rochester
A household needs to earn about $88,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Rochester home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $103,371, 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 Rochester's effective rate of 0.99%, 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 10 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Rochester
Rochester'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 Rochester.
Who works in Rochester, and how
Work in Rochester centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 77%
- Work from home 15%
- Transit, walk, or bike 8%
Life in Rochester
Rochester has more restaurants and bars per resident than 83% of metro areas and more parkland per resident than 98% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Rochester and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Rochester growing, and who is moving in?
Rochester has grown about 8% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Minneapolis, MN.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Rochester go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Rochester, month by month
Rochester sees roughly 105 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 degrees. January highs sit near 26, with lows near 13. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 26° | 19° | 13° |
| April | 56° | 45° | 38° |
| July | 82° | 73° | 64° |
| October | 60° | 50° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Rochester
The nearest airport, Rochester International, is about 9 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 69 miles away.
The best schools in and around Rochester
Schools across Rochester average a B, better than 75% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Byron Intermediate SchoolA · 69% proficient
- Pine Island ElementaryA · 67% proficient
- Plainview-elgin-millville Pk-3A · 65% proficient
Top middle schools
- Pine Island MiddleA− · 58% proficient
- Plainview-elgin-millville JuniorA− · 54% proficient
- Byron Middle SchoolB+ · 52% proficient
Top high schools
- Pine Island SecondaryA− · 62% proficient
- Plainview-elgin-millville HighB+ · 57% proficient
- Byron Senior High SchoolB+ · 55% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Rochester school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Rochester 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 Rochester against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Rochester suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 95% of metro areas, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 15% already work from home.
Retirees
The weather beats 62% of metro areas and health care access beats 97%.
Common questions about living in Rochester
Is Rochester a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Rochester ranks 7th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on health care access, what local pay buys, and low crime, and lowest on childcare costs and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Rochester expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $327,270. The overall cost of living runs about 7% below the national average. Set against a $103,371 median income, cost of living beats 95% of metro areas.
Is Rochester safe?
Yes, Rochester is safer than 93% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $233 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Rochester?
July highs average about 82 degrees, and January highs near 26 with lows near 13. That works out to about 105 pleasant days a year, more than 62% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Rochester?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Kasson, Byron & Dodge Center, Oronoco, and Downtown Rochester. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Rochester good for families?
Schools beat 75% of metro areas, crime safety beats 93%, and childcare runs $1,460 a month.
Is Rochester good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 95% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 71% of metro areas. About 15% of workers already work from home.
Compare Rochester with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Rochester. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Rochester 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.
Rochester detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Rochester: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Rochester: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Rochester: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Rochester: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Rochester 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.