Best PlacesSterling, ND Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Sterling, 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.
Sterling ranks 4,751st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. Tree cover pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on what local pay buys.
The best neighborhoods in Sterling
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.
Sterling's strengths and weaknesses
Where Sterling ranks high
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 89% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 88% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 86% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 85% of towns
- Household income$100,004 median, better than 85% of towns
Where Sterling ranks low
- Tree shadeBetter than only 5% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 9% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 24% of towns
- Cheap childcare$978 a month, better than only 26% of towns
- Short commute30.6 minutes each way, better than only 30% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Sterling
A household needs to earn about $108,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Sterling home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $100,004; 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 Sterling's effective rate of 0.43%, 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 Sterling
Sterling's age mix sits close to the national median, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Sterling.
Who works in Sterling, and how
Work in Sterling centers on retail trade and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 85%
- Work from home 13%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Sterling
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Sterling.
What the weather is like in Sterling, month by month
Sterling sees roughly 120 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 28, with lows near 5. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 28° | 15° | 5° |
| April | 57° | 42° | 28° |
| July | 89° | 73° | 58° |
| October | 61° | 46° | 33° |
Flying in and out of Sterling
The nearest airport, Bismarck Municipal, is about 21 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 367 miles away.
The best schools in and around Sterling
Schools across Sterling average a B−, better than 62% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Menoken Elementary SchoolB+ · 52% proficient
- Wing Elementary SchoolB · 48% proficient
- Ellen Hopkins ElementaryB · 46% proficient
Top high schools
- Wing High SchoolA · 75% proficient
- Hazelton-moffit-braddock High SchoolB · 47% proficient
- Kidder County High SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Sterling school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Sterling 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 Sterling against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Sterling
Is Sterling a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Sterling ranks 4,751st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on what local pay buys, low taxes, and a stable housing market, and lowest on tree cover 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 Sterling expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $435,080. The overall cost of living runs about 13% below the national average. Set against a $100,004 median income, cost of living beats 89% of towns.
Is Sterling safe?
Yes, Sterling is safer than 81% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $270 per resident a year.
Compare Sterling with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Sterling. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Sterling 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.
Sterling detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Sterling: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Sterling: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Sterling: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Sterling: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Sterling 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.