Best PlacesSantee, NE Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Santee, 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.
Santee ranks 39,154th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on state finances by a wide margin, and crime is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Santee
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.
Santee's strengths and weaknesses
Where Santee ranks high
- State fiscal healthBetter than 99% of towns
- QuietBetter than 97% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 87% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 82% of towns
- Short commute21.6 minutes each way, better than 82% of towns
Where Santee ranks low
- Crime safetyBetter than only 3% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 7% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 13% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Santee
A household needs to earn about $27,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Santee home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $54,479, 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 Santee's effective rate of 1.11%, 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 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Santee
Santee runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Santee.
Who works in Santee, and how
Work in Santee centers on public administration and health care & social. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 89%
- Work from home 5%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Santee
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Santee.
What the weather is like in Santee, month by month
Santee sees roughly 120 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 31, with lows near 13. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 31° | 21° | 13° |
| April | 61° | 47° | 37° |
| July | 87° | 75° | 65° |
| October | 64° | 51° | 41° |
Flying in and out of Santee
The nearest airport, Joe Foss Field, is about 76 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Eppley Airfield, about 146 miles away.
The best schools in and around Santee
Schools across Santee average a C, better than 35% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Bloomfield Elementary SchoolA · 65% proficient
- Niobrara Elementary SchoolC− · 30% proficient
- Isanti Elementary SchoolF · 4% proficient
Top middle schools
- Akron Westfield Middle SchoolA+ · 77% proficient
Top high schools
- Bloomfield Jr-sr High SchoolB+ · 58% proficient
- Niobrara Secondary SchoolD · 22% proficient
- Isanti High SchoolD− · 12% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Santee school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Santee 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 Santee against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Santee
Is Santee a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Santee ranks 39,154th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on state finances, quiet, and state infrastructure, 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 Santee expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $98,300. The overall cost of living runs about 11% below the national average. Set against a $54,479 median income, cost of living beats 13% of towns.
Is Santee safe?
Santee is safer than 3% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $780 per resident a year.
Compare Santee with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Santee. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Santee 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.
Santee detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Santee: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Santee: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Santee: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Santee: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Santee 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.