Best PlacesTowner, ND Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Towner, 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.
Towner ranks 25,355th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on a stable housing market by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Towner
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.
Towner's strengths and weaknesses
Where Towner ranks high
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 98% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 151 pleasant days a year, better than 93% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 88% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 84% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 83% of towns
Where Towner ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 1% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 3% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 7% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 19% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 28% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Towner
A household needs to earn about $32,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Towner home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $82,062, 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 Towner's effective rate of 0.69%, 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 10 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Towner
Towner 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 Towner.
Who works in Towner, and how
Work in Towner centers on agriculture & forestry and education. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 64%
- Work from home 30%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Towner
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Towner.
What the weather is like in Towner, month by month
Towner sees roughly 151 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 81 degrees. January highs sit near 18, with lows near 2. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 18° | 10° | 2° |
| April | 49° | 37° | 27° |
| July | 81° | 68° | 57° |
| October | 52° | 41° | 32° |
Flying in and out of Towner
The nearest airport, Minot International, is about 42 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 415 miles away.
The best schools in and around Towner
Schools across Towner average a C+, better than 42% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Rugby Ely Elementary SchoolB · 48% proficient
- Tgu-towner Elementary SchoolC− · 30% proficient
Top high schools
- Rugby High SchoolB− · 45% proficient
- Tgu-towner High SchoolB− · 42% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Towner school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Towner 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 Towner against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Towner
Is Towner a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Towner ranks 25,355th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on a stable housing market, the weather, and low taxes, and lowest on noise 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 Towner expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $124,571. The overall cost of living runs about 21% below the national average. Set against a $82,062 median income, cost of living beats 83% of towns.
Is Towner safe?
Towner is safer than 28% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $495 per resident a year.
Compare Towner with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Towner. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Towner 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.
Towner detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Towner: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Towner: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Towner: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Towner: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Towner 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.