Best PlacesRolette, ND Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Rolette, 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.
Rolette ranks 22,593rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on walkability by a wide margin, and crime is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Rolette
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.
Rolette's strengths and weaknesses
Where Rolette ranks high
- WalkabilityBetter than 99% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 92% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 138 pleasant days a year, better than 88% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 88% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 85% of towns
Where Rolette ranks low
- Crime safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 3% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 9% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 11% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Rolette
A household needs to earn about $34,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Rolette home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $84,418, 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 Rolette's effective rate of 0.55%, 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 Rolette
Rolette runs older than the country, though fewer residents are over 65 than the national share.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Rolette.
Who works in Rolette, and how
Work in Rolette centers on education 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 72%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 14%
Life in Rolette
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Rolette.
What the weather is like in Rolette, month by month
Rolette sees roughly 138 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 77 degrees. January highs sit near 18, with lows near 1. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 18° | 9° | 1° |
| April | 47° | 36° | 27° |
| July | 77° | 66° | 56° |
| October | 51° | 41° | 32° |
Flying in and out of Rolette
The nearest airport, Devils Lake Regional, is about 58 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 409 miles away.
The best schools in and around Rolette
Schools across Rolette average a B, better than 72% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Rugby Ely Elementary SchoolB · 48% proficient
- Bottineau Elementary SchoolB− · 40% proficient
- Rolette Elementary SchoolB− · 40% proficient
Top high schools
- Rolette High SchoolA · 75% proficient
- Rugby High SchoolB− · 45% proficient
- Bottineau Junior-senior High SchoolC+ · 40% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Rolette school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Rolette 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 Rolette against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Rolette
Is Rolette a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Rolette ranks 22,593rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on walkability, heat safety, and the weather, and lowest on crime and distance from a big city. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Rolette expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $134,722. The overall cost of living runs about 14% below the national average. Set against a $84,418 median income, cost of living beats 71% of towns.
Is Rolette safe?
Rolette is safer than 1% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $1,473 per resident a year.
Compare Rolette with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Rolette. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Rolette 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.
Rolette detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Rolette: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Rolette: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Rolette: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Rolette: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Rolette 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.