Best PlacesVan Cleve, IA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Van Cleve, 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.
Van Cleve ranks 6,557th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on state finances by a wide margin, and tree cover ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Van Cleve
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.
Van Cleve's strengths and weaknesses
Where Van Cleve ranks high
- State fiscal healthBetter than 94% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 90% of towns
- School gradeA−, better than 90% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 88% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 85% of towns
Where Van Cleve ranks low
- Tree shadeBetter than only 2% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 11% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 25% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 32% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Van Cleve
A household needs to earn about $69,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Van Cleve home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $97,373, 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 Van Cleve's effective rate of 0.99%, 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 Van Cleve
Van Cleve 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 Van Cleve.
Who works in Van Cleve, and how
Work in Van Cleve centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Van Cleve
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Van Cleve.
What the weather is like in Van Cleve, month by month
Van Cleve sees roughly 105 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 29, with lows near 13. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 29° | 21° | 13° |
| April | 61° | 48° | 37° |
| July | 84° | 74° | 64° |
| October | 64° | 52° | 42° |
Flying in and out of Van Cleve
The nearest airport, Des Moines International, is about 42 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Eppley Airfield, about 154 miles away.
The best schools in and around Van Cleve
Schools across Van Cleve average an A−, better than 90% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Baxter Elementary SchoolA · 65% proficient
- West Marshall Elementary SchoolA · 63% proficient
- Fisher Elementary SchoolA · 63% proficient
Top middle schools
- West Marshall Middle SchoolA+ · 74% proficient
- East Marshall Middle SchoolA+ · 69% proficient
- Berg Middle SchoolA− · 57% proficient
Top high schools
- West Marshall High SchoolA+ · 81% proficient
- East Marshall Senior High SchoolA− · 65% proficient
- Newton Senior High SchoolB+ · 58% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Van Cleve school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Van Cleve 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 Van Cleve against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Van Cleve
Is Van Cleve a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Van Cleve ranks 6,557th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on state finances, health care access, and good schools, and lowest on tree cover and biking. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Van Cleve expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $258,232. The overall cost of living runs about 13% below the national average. Set against a $97,373 median income, cost of living beats 88% of towns.
Is Van Cleve safe?
Yes, Van Cleve is safer than 59% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $263 per resident a year.
Compare Van Cleve with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Van Cleve. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Van Cleve 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.
Van Cleve detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Van Cleve: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Van Cleve: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Van Cleve: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Van Cleve: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Van Cleve 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.