Best PlacesBal Harbour, FL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Bal Harbour, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Bal Harbour ranks 24,035th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on biking by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Bal Harbour
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.
Bal Harbour's strengths and weaknesses
Where Bal Harbour ranks high
- BikingBetter than 99% of towns
- TransitBetter than 99% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 99% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 99% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 98% of towns
Where Bal Harbour ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 1% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 4% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 5% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Bal Harbour
A household needs to earn about $414,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Bal Harbour home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $102,302, 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 Bal Harbour's effective rate of 0.72%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Bal Harbour
Bal Harbour 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 Bal Harbour.
Who works in Bal Harbour, and how
Work in Bal Harbour centers on professional & technical and health care & social. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 66%
- Work from home 26%
- Transit, walk, or bike 8%
Life in Bal Harbour
Bal Harbour has more restaurants and bars per resident than 91% of towns. The coast is about 0 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Bal Harbour and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Bal Harbour, month by month
Bal Harbour sees roughly 100 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 79, with lows near 59. The comfortable stretch runs November through March.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 79° | 68° | 59° |
| April | 87° | 77° | 69° |
| July | 92° | 84° | 77° |
| October | 88° | 80° | 73° |
Flying in and out of Bal Harbour
Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International sits about 12 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 15.7 million passengers in 2025, with 180 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Bal Harbour
Schools across Bal Harbour average an A−, better than 84% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Ruth K. Broad Bay Harbor K-8 CenterA · 71% proficient
- David Lawrence Jr. K-8 CenterB · 45% proficient
Top middle schools
- Miami Beach Nautilus Middle SchoolA− · 55% proficient
- John F. Kennedy Middle SchoolA− · 53% proficient
Top high schools
- Alonzo & Tracy Mourning Senior High SchoolB · 47% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Bal Harbour school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Bal Harbour 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 Bal Harbour against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Bal Harbour
Is Bal Harbour a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Bal Harbour ranks 24,035th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on biking, transit, and state infrastructure, and lowest on an overheated housing market and car insurance costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Bal Harbour expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,601,808. The overall cost of living runs about 68% above the national average. Set against a $102,302 median income, cost of living beats 42% of towns.
Is Bal Harbour safe?
Bal Harbour is safer than 4% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $488 per resident a year.
Compare Bal Harbour with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Bal Harbour. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Bal Harbour 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.
Bal Harbour detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Bal Harbour: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Bal Harbour: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Bal Harbour: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Bal Harbour: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Bal Harbour 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.