Best PlacesWishek, ND Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Wishek, 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.
Wishek ranks 14,242nd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on short commutes by a wide margin, and tree cover ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Wishek
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.
Wishek's strengths and weaknesses
Where Wishek ranks high
- Short commute10.3 minutes each way, better than 99% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 91% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 90% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 90% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 88% of towns
Where Wishek ranks low
- Tree shadeBetter than only 2% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 2% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 3% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 25% of towns
- School gradeC, better than only 34% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Wishek
A household needs to earn about $26,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Wishek home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $72,243, 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 Wishek's effective rate of 0.86%, 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 5 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Wishek
Wishek 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 Wishek.
Who works in Wishek, and how
Work in Wishek centers on agriculture & forestry and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 87%
- Work from home 6%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Wishek
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Wishek.
What the weather is like in Wishek, month by month
Wishek sees roughly 129 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 24, with lows near 5. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 24° | 14° | 5° |
| April | 54° | 40° | 29° |
| July | 85° | 71° | 59° |
| October | 60° | 46° | 34° |
Flying in and out of Wishek
The nearest airport, Jamestown Regional, is about 63 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 322 miles away.
The best schools in and around Wishek
Schools across Wishek average a C, better than 34% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- S.g. Reinertsen ElementaryB+ · 51% proficient
- Napoleon Elementary SchoolB · 50% proficient
- Wishek Elementary SchoolC · 35% proficient
Top middle schools
- Browns Valley MiddleC+ · 37% proficient
Top high schools
- Zeeland High SchoolA · 75% proficient
- Moorhead High SchoolB · 50% proficient
- Napoleon High SchoolC+ · 40% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Wishek school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Wishek 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 Wishek against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Wishek
Is Wishek a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Wishek ranks 14,242nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on short commutes, walkability, and cell coverage, and lowest on tree cover and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Wishek expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $98,643. The overall cost of living runs about 16% below the national average. Set against a $72,243 median income, cost of living beats 58% of towns.
Is Wishek safe?
Yes, Wishek is safer than 62% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $339 per resident a year.
Compare Wishek with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Wishek. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Wishek 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.
Wishek detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Wishek: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Wishek: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Wishek: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Wishek: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Wishek 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.