Best PlacesWallace, ID Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Wallace, 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.
Wallace ranks 33,579th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on state finances by a wide margin, and a weak job market ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Wallace
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.
Wallace's strengths and weaknesses
Where Wallace ranks high
- State fiscal healthBetter than 98% of towns
- Short commute15.7 minutes each way, better than 97% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 96% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 93% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 91% of towns
Where Wallace ranks low
- Local economyBetter than only 8% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 9% of towns
- Household income$47,392 median, better than only 10% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 11% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Wallace
A household needs to earn about $66,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Wallace home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $47,392, so buying stretches a typical household.
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 Wallace's effective rate of 0.59%, 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 Wallace
Wallace 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 Wallace.
Who works in Wallace, and how
Work in Wallace centers on mining & oil & gas and retail trade. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 75%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 15%
Life in Wallace
Wallace has more restaurants and bars per resident than 99% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Wallace and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Wallace, month by month
Wallace sees roughly 97 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 74 degrees. January highs sit near 29, with lows near 18. The comfortable stretch runs July and August.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 29° | 23° | 18° |
| April | 43° | 33° | 26° |
| July | 74° | 62° | 53° |
| October | 47° | 38° | 31° |
Flying in and out of Wallace
The nearest airport, Spokane International, is about 76 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Boise Air Trml/Gowen Field, about 272 miles away.
The best schools in and around Wallace
Schools across Wallace average a C+, better than 46% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Silver Hills Elementary SchoolB · 50% proficient
- Pinehurst Elementary SchoolB− · 40% proficient
Top middle schools
- Kellogg Middle SchoolB− · 43% proficient
Top high schools
- Kellogg High SchoolC · 33% proficient
- Wallace Jr/sr High SchoolC− · 30% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Wallace school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Wallace 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 Wallace against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Wallace
Is Wallace a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Wallace ranks 33,579th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on state finances, short commutes, and walkability, and lowest on a weak job market and the cost of living against local pay. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Wallace expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $260,466. The overall cost of living runs about 13% below the national average. Set against a $47,392 median income, cost of living beats 9% of towns.
Is Wallace safe?
Wallace is safer than 23% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $497 per resident a year.
Compare Wallace with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Wallace. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Wallace 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.
Wallace detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Wallace: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Wallace: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Wallace: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Wallace: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Wallace 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.