Best PlacesSpades, IN Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Spades, 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.
Spades ranks 22,921st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. The weather pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on civic engagement.
The best neighborhoods in Spades
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.
Spades' strengths and weaknesses
Where Spades ranks high
- Voter turnoutBetter than 89% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 88% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 86% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 82% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 80% of towns
Where Spades ranks low
- Nice weatherabout 55 pleasant days a year, better than only 3% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 6% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 6% of towns
- Short commute36.0 minutes each way, better than only 12% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 30% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Spades
A household needs to earn about $85,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Spades home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $78,756; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Spades' effective rate of 0.77%, 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 Spades
Spades 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 Spades.
Who works in Spades, and how
Work in Spades centers on professional & technical and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 89%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Spades
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Spades.
What the weather is like in Spades, month by month
Spades sees roughly 55 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 43, 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 | 43° | 32° | 23° |
| April | 68° | 55° | 43° |
| July | 88° | 77° | 67° |
| October | 71° | 59° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Spades
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International sits about 28 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 4.4 million passengers in 2025, with 99 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Spades
Schools across Spades average a B, better than 67% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Sunman Elementary SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
Top middle schools
- Batesville Middle SchoolB+ · 49% proficient
- East Central Middle SchoolB · 44% proficient
Top high schools
- East Central High SchoolA− · 59% proficient
- Batesville High SchoolB+ · 57% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Spades school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Spades 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 Spades against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Spades
Is Spades a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Spades ranks 22,921st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on civic engagement, an educated workforce, and cheap car insurance, and lowest on the weather and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Spades expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $325,950. The overall cost of living runs about 13% below the national average. Set against a $78,756 median income, cost of living beats 75% of towns.
Is Spades safe?
Yes, Spades is safer than 62% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $227 per resident a year.
Compare Spades with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Spades. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Spades 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.
Spades detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Spades: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Spades: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Spades: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Spades: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Spades 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.