Best PlacesAlbuquerque, NM Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Albuquerque metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Debernardi, CC BY-SA 3.0, via commons
Albuquerque ranks 185th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on air quality and tree cover. It does better on biking, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Albuquerque 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 Albuquerque
The towns and districts of the Albuquerque 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.
Rio Rancho
Local pay stretches further, incomes run higher, and crime runs lower.
Downtown Albuquerque
More adults hold degrees, though fewer households have young kids.
Paradise Hills
Biking is worse and streets are more car-dependent.
Bernalillo, Placitas & Santo Domingo Pueblo
Prices have run up less, though transit reaches fewer jobs.
Los Ranchos de Albuquerque & North Valley
Commutes are shorter, though it is noisier.
Moriarty, Tijeras & Estancia
Homes cost less, though more homes sit empty.
Los Lunas & Belen
Health care is harder to reach and fewer residents vote.
South Valley
Health outcomes score lower.
Albuquerque shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 1% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Albuquerque's strengths and weaknesses
Albuquerque lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Biking, the weather, and cell coverage carry most of that.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Air quality, tree cover, and crime hold the score down. That varies block to block rather than evenly, and the map below shows where.
Where Albuquerque ranks high
- BikingBetter than 92% of metro areas
- Nice weatherabout 168 pleasant days a year, better than 92% of metro areas
- Cell coverageBetter than 85% of metro areas
- TransitBetter than 84% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than 82% of metro areas
Where Albuquerque ranks low
- Air qualityBetter than only 9% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than only 11% of metro areas
- Crime safetyBetter than only 11% of metro areas
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 14% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than only 16% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Albuquerque
A household needs to earn about $79,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Albuquerque home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $79,322, 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 Albuquerque's effective rate of 0.79%, 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 Albuquerque
Albuquerque's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Albuquerque.
Who works in Albuquerque, and how
Work in Albuquerque centers on health care & social and professional & technical. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 80%
- Work from home 15%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Albuquerque
Albuquerque has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas and less parkland per resident than most metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Albuquerque and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Albuquerque growing, and who is moving in?
Albuquerque has grown about 2% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Santa Fe, NM.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Albuquerque go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Albuquerque, month by month
Albuquerque sees roughly 168 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 95 degrees. January highs sit near 51, with lows near 24. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 51° | 37° | 24° |
| April | 74° | 58° | 42° |
| July | 95° | 80° | 67° |
| October | 75° | 60° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Albuquerque
Albuquerque International Sunport sits about 5 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 2.6 million passengers in 2025, with 69 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Albuquerque
Schools across Albuquerque average a C+, better than 62% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Corona ElementaryA · 65% proficient
- Altura Preparatory SchoolA · 65% proficient
- Cubero ElementaryB · 50% proficient
Top middle schools
- Bernalillo MiddleD+ · 24% proficient
- Solare Collegiate Charter SchoolD · 23% proficient
Top high schools
- Albuquerque Institute Of Math & ScienceA+ · 95% proficient
- Cottonwood Classical PrepA+ · 81% proficient
- La Cueva HighA · 79% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Albuquerque school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Albuquerque 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 Albuquerque against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Albuquerque suits
Common questions about living in Albuquerque
Is Albuquerque a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Albuquerque ranks 185th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on biking, the weather, and cell coverage, and lowest on air quality and tree cover. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Albuquerque expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $301,800. The overall cost of living runs about 12% below the national average. Set against a $79,322 median income, cost of living beats 59% of metro areas.
Is Albuquerque safe?
Albuquerque is safer than 11% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $642 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Albuquerque?
July highs average about 95 degrees, and January highs near 51 with lows near 24. That works out to about 168 pleasant days a year, more than 92% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Albuquerque?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Rio Rancho, Downtown Albuquerque, and Paradise Hills. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Albuquerque good for families?
Schools beat 62% of metro areas, crime safety beats 11%, and childcare runs $868 a month.
Is Albuquerque good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 59% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 16% of metro areas. About 15% of workers already work from home.
Compare Albuquerque with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Albuquerque. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Albuquerque 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.
Albuquerque detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Albuquerque: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Albuquerque: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Albuquerque: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Albuquerque: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Albuquerque 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.