Best PlacesWaterloo, IA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Waterloo metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Costs and crime read low across the board, which puts the choice down to which part suits you. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by WeaponizingArchitecture, CC BY-SA 4.0, via commons
Waterloo ranks 52nd of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It earns the spot by being affordable and steady rather than flashy: everyday costs run well below the national average, and crime is low. The trade is distance from a big city: the nearest large city and its jobs, flights, and culture are a drive away.
The best neighborhoods in the Waterloo metro
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.
The best areas in Waterloo
The towns and districts of the Waterloo metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Waverly
More adults hold degrees, crime runs lower, and incomes run higher.
Denver
Local pay stretches further, though biking is worse.
Grundy Center
It is quieter, though advertised internet is slower.
Sumner
More residents vote and prices have run up less.
Downtown Waterloo
Streets are more walkable, though schools score lower.
Evansdale & La Porte City
Fewer households have young kids.
Waterloo shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 5% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Waterloo's strengths and weaknesses
Waterloo ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Short commutes is the standout, in the top 2% of metro areas. Good schools and state finances follow.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Distance from a big city, property taxes, and noise hold the score down. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Waterloo ranks high
- Short commute17.0 minutes each way, better than 98% of metro areas
- School gradeA−, better than 97% of metro areas
- State fiscal healthBetter than 95% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than 91% of metro areas
- Healthcare accessBetter than 89% of metro areas
Where Waterloo ranks low
- Big-city accessBetter than only 14% of metro areas
- Low property taxBetter than only 22% of metro areas
- QuietBetter than only 26% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than only 28% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than only 29% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Waterloo
A household needs to earn about $58,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Waterloo home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $75,569, 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 Waterloo's effective rate of 1.35%, 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 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Waterloo
Waterloo runs younger 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 Waterloo.
Who works in Waterloo, and how
Work in Waterloo centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 85%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Waterloo
Waterloo has more parkland per resident than 98% of metro areas and more late-night spots per resident than 70% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Waterloo and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Waterloo growing, and who is moving in?
Waterloo has held roughly flat in population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Des Moines, IA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Waterloo go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Waterloo, month by month
Waterloo sees roughly 91 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 31, with lows near 11. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 31° | 20° | 11° |
| April | 63° | 48° | 36° |
| July | 87° | 75° | 63° |
| October | 66° | 52° | 40° |
Flying in and out of Waterloo
The nearest airport, Waterloo Regional, is about 6 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 171 miles away.
The best schools in and around Waterloo
Schools across Waterloo average an A−, better than 97% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- La Porte City Elementary SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
- K-5 Elementary School Lincoln Street BuildingA+ · 81% proficient
- Dysart-geneseo Elementary SchoolA · 70% proficient
Top middle schools
- Denver Middle SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
- Peet Junior High SchoolA+ · 80% proficient
- Holmes Junior High SchoolA+ · 78% proficient
Top high schools
- Denver Senior High SchoolA+ · 87% proficient
- Cedar Falls High SchoolA · 76% proficient
- Hudson High SchoolA · 76% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Waterloo school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Waterloo 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 Waterloo against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Waterloo suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 10% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Waterloo
Is Waterloo a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Waterloo ranks 52nd of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on short commutes, good schools, and state finances, and lowest on distance from a big city and property taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Waterloo expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $205,384. The overall cost of living runs about 18% below the national average. Set against a $75,569 median income, cost of living beats 67% of metro areas.
Is Waterloo safe?
Yes, Waterloo is safer than 73% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $280 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Waterloo?
July highs average about 87 degrees, and January highs near 31 with lows near 11. That works out to about 91 pleasant days a year, more than 53% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Waterloo?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Waverly, Denver, and Grundy Center. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Waterloo good for families?
Schools beat 97% of metro areas, crime safety beats 73%, and childcare runs $729 a month.
Is Waterloo good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 67% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 91% of metro areas. About 10% of workers already work from home.
Compare Waterloo with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Waterloo. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Waterloo 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.
Waterloo detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Waterloo: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Waterloo: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Waterloo: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Waterloo: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Waterloo 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.