Best PlacesTwin, SD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Twin, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Twin ranks 8,928th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low taxes by a wide margin, and tree cover ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Twin
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.
Twin's strengths and weaknesses
Where Twin ranks high
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 98% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 97% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 97% of towns
- QuietBetter than 92% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 90% of towns
Where Twin ranks low
- Tree shadeBetter than only 2% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 3% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 7% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 13% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Twin
A household needs to earn about $61,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Twin home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $99,342, 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 Twin's effective rate of 0.97%, 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 Twin
Twin 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 Twin.
Who works in Twin, and how
Work in Twin centers on agriculture & forestry and transportation & warehousing. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 46%
- Work from home 45%
- Transit, walk, or bike 9%
Life in Twin
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Twin.
What the weather is like in Twin, month by month
Twin sees roughly 142 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 31, with lows near 7. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 31° | 18° | 7° |
| April | 58° | 41° | 26° |
| July | 89° | 71° | 54° |
| October | 61° | 44° | 29° |
Flying in and out of Twin
The nearest airport, Dickinson/Theodore Roosevelt Regional, is about 64 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Denver International, about 425 miles away.
The best schools in and around Twin
Schools across Twin average a B−, better than 71% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Little Powder ElementaryA+ · 75% proficient
- Sundance ElementaryA− · 60% proficient
- Lemmon Elementary - 02B− · 40% proficient
Top middle schools
- Bison Jr. High - 04D · 21% proficient
- Lemmon Jr. High - 06D · 21% proficient
Top high schools
- Harding County High School - 01A · 75% proficient
- Lemmon High School - 01A · 75% proficient
- Bison High School - 01A · 75% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Twin school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Twin 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 Twin against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Twin
Is Twin a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Twin ranks 8,928th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low taxes, what local pay buys, and clean air, 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 Twin expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $228,527. The overall cost of living runs about 22% below the national average. Set against a $99,342 median income, cost of living beats 97% of towns.
Is Twin safe?
Twin is safer than 18% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $515 per resident a year.
Compare Twin with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Twin. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Twin 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.
Twin detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Twin: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Twin: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Twin: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Twin: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Twin 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.