Best PlacesShellsburg, IA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Shellsburg, 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.
Shellsburg ranks 4,010th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on good schools by a wide margin, and air quality ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Shellsburg
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.
Shellsburg's strengths and weaknesses
Where Shellsburg ranks high
- School gradeA+, better than 97% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than 94% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 87% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 84% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 84% of towns
Where Shellsburg ranks low
- Air qualityBetter than only 24% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 29% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 30% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 36% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 39% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Shellsburg
A household needs to earn about $78,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Shellsburg home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $96,305, 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 Shellsburg's effective rate of 1.03%, 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 Shellsburg
Shellsburg runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Shellsburg.
Who works in Shellsburg, and how
Work in Shellsburg centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 81%
- Work from home 18%
- Transit, walk, or bike 1%
Life in Shellsburg
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Shellsburg.
What the weather is like in Shellsburg, month by month
Shellsburg sees roughly 92 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 31, with lows near 16. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 31° | 23° | 16° |
| April | 63° | 50° | 40° |
| July | 87° | 75° | 65° |
| October | 66° | 53° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Shellsburg
The nearest airport, The Eastern Iowa, is about 18 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 203 miles away.
The best schools in and around Shellsburg
Schools across Shellsburg average an A+, better than 97% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Viola Gibson Elementary SchoolA+ · 74% proficient
- Tilford Elementary SchoolA+ · 73% proficient
- Shellsburg Elementary SchoolA · 72% proficient
Top middle schools
- Vinton-shellsburg Middle SchoolA+ · 81% proficient
- Norway Elementary SchoolA · 65% proficient
- Harding Middle SchoolA · 64% proficient
Top high schools
- Vinton-shellsburg High SchoolA · 77% proficient
- John F Kennedy High SchoolA · 69% proficient
- Benton Community Senior High SchoolA · 69% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Shellsburg school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Shellsburg 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 Shellsburg against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Shellsburg
Is Shellsburg a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Shellsburg ranks 4,010th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on good schools, state finances, and health care access, and lowest on air quality and property taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Shellsburg expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $287,680. The overall cost of living runs about 11% below the national average. Set against a $96,305 median income, cost of living beats 84% of towns.
Is Shellsburg safe?
Yes, Shellsburg is safer than 84% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $192 per resident a year.
Compare Shellsburg with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Shellsburg. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Shellsburg 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.
Shellsburg detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Shellsburg: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Shellsburg: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Shellsburg: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Shellsburg: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Shellsburg 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.