Best PlacesWaskish, MN Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Waskish, 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.
Waskish ranks 35,554th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on quiet by a wide margin, and civic engagement ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Waskish
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.
Waskish's strengths and weaknesses
Where Waskish ranks high
- QuietBetter than 97% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 93% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 153 pleasant days a year, better than 93% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 84% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 81% of towns
Where Waskish ranks low
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 2% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 3% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 3% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,118 a month, better than only 15% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Waskish
A household needs to earn about $50,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Waskish home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $74,259, 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 Waskish's effective rate of 0.76%, 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 Waskish
Waskish 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 Waskish.
Who works in Waskish, and how
Work in Waskish centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 80%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 10%
Life in Waskish
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Waskish.
What the weather is like in Waskish, month by month
Waskish sees roughly 153 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 80 degrees. January highs sit near 19, with lows near 3. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 19° | 11° | 3° |
| April | 49° | 39° | 30° |
| July | 80° | 69° | 59° |
| October | 54° | 45° | 38° |
Flying in and out of Waskish
The nearest airport, Bemidji Regional, is about 49 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 235 miles away.
The best schools in and around Waskish
Schools across Waskish average a C−, better than 29% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Northome ElementaryC+ · 38% proficient
- Kelliher ElementaryC · 32% proficient
Top high schools
- Northome SecondaryD+ · 24% proficient
- Kelliher SecondaryD+ · 24% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Waskish school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Waskish 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 Waskish against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Waskish
Is Waskish a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Waskish ranks 35,554th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on quiet, state infrastructure, and the weather, and lowest on civic engagement 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 Waskish expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $190,544. The overall cost of living runs about 13% below the national average. Set against a $74,259 median income, cost of living beats 61% of towns.
Is Waskish safe?
Waskish is safer than 3% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $817 per resident a year.
Compare Waskish with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Waskish. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Waskish 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.
Waskish detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Waskish: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Waskish: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Waskish: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Waskish: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Waskish 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.