Best PlacesVail, IA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Vail, 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.
Vail ranks 19,089th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on state finances by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Vail
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.
Vail's strengths and weaknesses
Where Vail ranks high
- State fiscal healthBetter than 94% of towns
- School gradeA−, better than 89% of towns
- Short commute20.9 minutes each way, better than 84% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 83% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 75% of towns
Where Vail ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 7% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 18% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 26% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 26% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 27% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Vail
A household needs to earn about $41,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Vail home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $70,239, 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 Vail's effective rate of 1.09%, 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 Vail
Vail's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Vail.
Who works in Vail, and how
Work in Vail centers on manufacturing and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 88%
- Work from home 7%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Vail
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Vail.
What the weather is like in Vail, month by month
Vail sees roughly 92 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 31, with lows near 14. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 31° | 22° | 14° |
| April | 62° | 49° | 38° |
| July | 84° | 74° | 64° |
| October | 64° | 52° | 42° |
Flying in and out of Vail
Eppley Airfield sits about 62 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 2.6 million passengers in 2025, with 73 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Vail
Schools across Vail average an A−, better than 89% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Irwin Elementary SchoolA · 70% proficient
- Odebolt Arthur Battle Creek Ida Grove Elementary-odeboltA− · 62% proficient
- Ar-we-va Elementary Community SchoolA− · 60% proficient
Top middle schools
- Ikm-manning Middle SchoolA+ · 78% proficient
- Odebolt Arthur Battle Creek Ida Grove Middle SchoolA+ · 68% proficient
- Denison Middle SchoolA+ · 68% proficient
Top high schools
- Ikm-manning High SchoolA · 68% proficient
- Westside Junior-senior High SchoolA− · 67% proficient
- Denison High SchoolA− · 63% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Vail school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Vail 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 Vail against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Vail
Is Vail a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Vail ranks 19,089th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on state finances, good schools, and short commutes, and lowest on noise and tree cover. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Vail expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $151,967. The overall cost of living runs about 18% below the national average. Set against a $70,239 median income, cost of living beats 56% of towns.
Is Vail safe?
Vail is safer than 52% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $275 per resident a year.
Compare Vail with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Vail. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Vail 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.
Vail detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Vail: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Vail: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Vail: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Vail: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Vail 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.