Best PlacesSt. Joseph, MN Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around St. Joseph, 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.
St. Joseph ranks 9,881st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on biking by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in St. Joseph
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.
St. Joseph's strengths and weaknesses
Where St. Joseph ranks high
- BikingBetter than 98% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 93% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 93% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 92% of towns
- TransitBetter than 91% of towns
Where St. Joseph ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,847 a month, better than only 1% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 11% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 20% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 27% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 43% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in St. Joseph
A household needs to earn about $72,000 a year to comfortably buy the median St. Joseph home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $78,022, 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 St. Joseph's effective rate of 0.83%, 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 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in St. Joseph
St. Joseph runs younger 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 St. Joseph.
Who works in St. Joseph, and how
Work in St. Joseph centers on education and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 78%
- Work from home 9%
- Transit, walk, or bike 13%
Life in St. Joseph
St. Joseph has more restaurants and bars per resident than 73% of towns and more parkland per resident than 88% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of St. Joseph and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in St. Joseph, month by month
St. Joseph sees roughly 120 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 23, with lows near 7. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 23° | 15° | 7° |
| April | 54° | 43° | 33° |
| July | 84° | 72° | 61° |
| October | 58° | 47° | 39° |
Flying in and out of St. Joseph
The nearest airport, St. Cloud Regional, is about 12 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 71 miles away.
The best schools in and around St. Joseph
Schools across St. Joseph average a C+, better than 45% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Holdingford ElementaryA · 70% proficient
- Avon ElementaryB · 48% proficient
- Kennedy Community SchoolB− · 42% proficient
Top middle schools
- Sartell MiddleA− · 57% proficient
- North Junior HighD · 21% proficient
Top high schools
- Sartell Senior HighA− · 63% proficient
- Rocori Senior HighB+ · 54% proficient
- Holdingford SecondaryB− · 43% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every St. Joseph school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
St. Joseph 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 St. Joseph against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in St. Joseph
Is St. Joseph a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, St. Joseph ranks 9,881st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on biking, state infrastructure, and walkability, and lowest on childcare costs and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is St. Joseph expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $273,474. The overall cost of living runs about 8% below the national average. Set against a $78,022 median income, cost of living beats 54% of towns.
Is St. Joseph safe?
Yes, St. Joseph is safer than 71% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $261 per resident a year.
Compare St. Joseph with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to St. Joseph. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in St. Joseph 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.
St. Joseph detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for St. Joseph: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in St. Joseph: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of St. Joseph: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in St. Joseph: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
St. Joseph 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.