Best PlacesBailey, CO Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Bailey, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Bailey ranks 15,923rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on heat safety by a wide margin, and air quality ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Bailey
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.
Bailey's strengths and weaknesses
Where Bailey ranks high
- Heat safetyBetter than 99% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 96% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 94% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 158 pleasant days a year, better than 94% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 88% of towns
Where Bailey ranks low
- Air qualityBetter than only 1% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,503 a month, better than only 3% of towns
- Short commute40.7 minutes each way, better than only 5% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 7% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 8% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Bailey
A household needs to earn about $140,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Bailey home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $104,296, so buying stretches a typical household.
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 Bailey's effective rate of 0.41%, 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 Bailey
Bailey 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 Bailey.
Who works in Bailey, and how
Work in Bailey centers on construction 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 74%
- Work from home 24%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Bailey
Bailey has more restaurants and bars per resident than 71% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Bailey and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Bailey, month by month
Bailey sees roughly 158 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 68 degrees. January highs sit near 28, with lows near 14. The comfortable stretch runs July.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 28° | 20° | 14° |
| April | 42° | 32° | 25° |
| July | 68° | 56° | 48° |
| October | 49° | 38° | 31° |
Flying in and out of Bailey
Denver International sits about 50 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 40.1 million passengers in 2025, with 250 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Bailey
Schools across Bailey average a B, better than 67% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Deer Creek Elementary SchoolB− · 43% proficient
- Elk Creek Elementary SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
Top middle schools
- Fitzsimmons Middle SchoolB+ · 50% proficient
- West Jefferson Middle SchoolB− · 43% proficient
Top high schools
- Conifer Senior High SchoolB+ · 58% proficient
- Platte Canyon High SchoolB · 47% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Bailey school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Bailey 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 Bailey against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Bailey
Is Bailey a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Bailey ranks 15,923rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on heat safety, civic engagement, and population health, and lowest on air quality and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Bailey expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $564,185. The overall cost of living runs about 5% above the national average. Set against a $104,296 median income, cost of living beats 81% of towns.
Is Bailey safe?
Yes, Bailey is safer than 56% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $408 per resident a year.
Compare Bailey with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Bailey. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Bailey 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.
Bailey detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Bailey: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Bailey: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Bailey: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Bailey: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Bailey 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.