The 10 Best Minneapolis Suburbs To Live In For 2026

The 10 Best Minneapolis Suburbs To Live For 2026

Deephaven is always mentioned as one of the best suburbs in the Minneapolis area. We’ll tell you the good about “Awesome Deephaven.”

Everyone here is rich; families average $197,679 a year, which is the 3rd highest in the Minneapolis region. And only 1.73% are out of work. Homes average more than $1,062,991 each.

Victoria is the second best ‘burb we looked at near Minneapolis for 2026.

It ranks 4th for incomes in the area and only 1.13% of residents lack insurance, good for 13th best.

Here in Greenfield, it’s really safe, and residents are just about as rich as you’ll see in the Minneapolis metro area.

The bad side? Schools are more crowded, and the cost of living puts a large part of the city out of reach for most families.

But price is based on demand and a lot of people want to live in Greenfield.

Independence ranks as the 4th best suburb of Minneapolis for 2026.

You won’t find many better places to raise your kids in the region than in Independence and the schools are some of the best around.

Coming in as the fifth best is Hanover.

Hanover gets kudos for having the 4most expensive homes in the Minneapolis area, where houses sell for an average of $444,056. However, the cost of living here is among the highest in the area.

Mendota Heights is proud of its 6th place finish on this list. And here’s why.

Most residents have great jobs and the unemployment rate sits at 1.42%.

According to online reports, Mendota Heights is quickly becoming one of the more affluent suburbs in the Minneapolis area, meaning you need to get in soon.

The 7th best suburb on our list goes to Plymouth.

Plymouth schools are some of the best in the region, and crime is really low. The cost of living makes it a lot more desirable for many families, especially first-time home buyers.

And, it’s only 10.3 miles to downtown, which is a good thing.

Review Of Plymouth by HomeSnacks User

It has all the amenities that you may need including a wide array of grocery stores and places to eat.

There is a lack of diversity in the town and the rent and cost of living is higher than the surrounding areas in the west metro.

Elko New Market is growing quickly, and for a good reason. Crime is far below average, and most residents are gainfully employed. Even the cost of living is reasonable.

A solid 1.54% of people lack insurance, good for 19th in the area.

Is ‘Everything Better In Albertville?’

Almost.

It placed 9th on our list thanks to the fact that it’s really expensive to live here, but the schools are great, so you get what you pay for in that regard.

And rounding out the top ten for 2026 is Wayzata.

This city is far above average in every category, and the best part? It’s far more affordable than the other cities listed above. So, you get a big bang for your buck here.

Methodology: How We Determined The Best Suburbs Around Minneapolis for 2026

Figuring out the best suburbs around Minneapolis was simple. We used Saturday Night Science to find things people like about living in the suburbs and then locate the suburbs with those things.

We analyzed the newest American Community Survey data for 2020-2024 to research each suburb. We decided upon the following criteria:

• Low unemployment rate
• High median household incomes
• Population density (lots of things to do)
• High home values
• A lot of college-educated people
• Low poverty
• High rate of insured families

We defined a suburb as being within 30 miles of Minneapolis.

Additionally, we limited the analysis to places that have over 2,000 people. This left us with a grand total of 111 suburbs to evaluate around Minneapolis.

We ranked each place with scores from 1 to 111 in each category, where 1 was the “best.

Next, we averaged the rankings for each place to create a quality-of-life index.

Finally, we crowned the city with the best quality of life index, the “Best Suburb near Minneapolis.” We’re lookin’ at you, Deephaven.

This result may differ from our state-wide data as we did not include commute times and crime for this analysis to allow for a more extensive selection of suburbs.

We updated the data for 2026. This report is our eleventh time ranking the best Minneapolis suburbs. Skip to the end to see the list of all the suburbs ranked from best to worst.