Best PlacesAvalon, Albuquerque, NM Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Avalon, Albuquerque, 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.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Avalon, Albuquerque ranks 3,927th of 5,983 U.S. neighborhoods on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on few empty homes by a wide margin, and tree cover ranks lowest.

#3,927
of 5,983 neighborhoods
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
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of 5,983 neighborhoods
Your rank
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The best neighborhoods in Avalon, Albuquerque

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Avalon, Albuquerque area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
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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.

Avalon, Albuquerque's strengths and weaknesses

Top 5%Few empty homes
Top 5%A strong job market
Top 10%Heat safety
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Avalon, Albuquerque with other neighborhoods.

Where Avalon, Albuquerque ranks high

  • Low vacancyBetter than 97% of neighborhoods
  • Local economyBetter than 96% of neighborhoods
  • Heat safetyBetter than 91% of neighborhoods
  • Disaster safetyBetter than 90% of neighborhoods
  • Cheap childcare$853 a month, better than 81% of neighborhoods

Where Avalon, Albuquerque ranks low

  • Tree shadeBetter than only 1% of neighborhoods
  • Healthcare accessBetter than only 3% of neighborhoods
  • Internet speedBetter than only 5% of neighborhoods
  • Educational attainmentBetter than only 12% of neighborhoods
  • Big-city accessBetter than only 14% of neighborhoods

What it costs to buy a home in Avalon, Albuquerque

A household needs to earn about $45,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Avalon, Albuquerque home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $67,551, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$45,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$1,049
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $166,397 home
Median rent
$1,140
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$848
Property tax$145
Homeowners insurance$55

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 Avalon, Albuquerque's effective rate of 1.05%, 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.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Avalon, Albuquerque

Avalon, Albuquerque runs younger than the country, and households here run larger than average.

Median age
28
younger than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
7%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.8
above the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1825%
18 to 3436%
35 to 4918%
50 to 6415%
65 and older7%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Avalon, Albuquerque.


Who works in Avalon, Albuquerque, and how

Work in Avalon, Albuquerque centers on health care & social and construction. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
6%
below the national average
Unemployment
4.1%
below the national average
Job growth
+6.6%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social14%
Construction13%
Retail trade12%
Hospitality & food9%
Public administration9%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 93%
  • Work from home 6%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 0%

Life in Avalon, Albuquerque

Avalon, Albuquerque has more restaurants and bars per resident than 79% of neighborhoods. That concentrates in some parts of Avalon, Albuquerque and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
34
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 94.6 per 10,000 residents, more than 79% of neighborhoods
Coffee shops
5
about 13.9 per 10,000 residents, more than 83% of neighborhoods

What the weather is like in Avalon, Albuquerque, month by month

Avalon, Albuquerque sees roughly 162 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 47, with lows near 20. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January47°33°20°
April71°54°36°
July92°77°60°
October72°56°39°

Flying in and out of Avalon, Albuquerque

Albuquerque International Sunport sits about 8 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 2.6 million passengers in 2025, with 69 nonstop destinations.

Nearest airport
ABQ
Albuquerque International Sunport, about 8 miles
Airport size
Medium hub
60th-busiest in the US, 69 nonstop destinations
Average drive
11 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Avalon, Albuquerque

Schools across Avalon, Albuquerque average a C+, better than 66% of neighborhoods.

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Avalon, Albuquerque school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Avalon, 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 Avalon, Albuquerque against the other 5,982 neighborhoods.


Common questions about living in Avalon, Albuquerque

Is Avalon, Albuquerque a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Avalon, Albuquerque ranks 3,927th of 5,983 neighborhoods. It scores highest on few empty homes, a strong job market, and heat safety, and lowest on tree cover and thin health care access. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Avalon, Albuquerque expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $166,397. The overall cost of living runs about 15% below the national average. Set against a $67,551 median income, cost of living beats 43% of neighborhoods.

Is Avalon, Albuquerque safe?

Avalon, Albuquerque is safer than 45% of neighborhoods. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $629 per resident a year.


Compare Avalon, Albuquerque with other neighborhoods


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Avalon, Albuquerque. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Avalon, 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.

Avalon, Albuquerque detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Avalon, Albuquerque: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Avalon, Albuquerque: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Avalon, Albuquerque: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Avalon, Albuquerque: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Avalon, Albuquerque detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.