Best PlacesBard, NM Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Bard, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Bard ranks 44,581st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and the cost of living against local pay is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Bard
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.
Bard's strengths and weaknesses
Where Bard ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 96% of towns
- Short commute17.7 minutes each way, better than 94% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 89% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 134 pleasant days a year, better than 87% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 86% of towns
Where Bard ranks low
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 3% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 3% of towns
- Household income$33,300 median, better than only 3% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 3% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 4% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Bard
A household needs to earn about $38,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Bard home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $33,300, 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 Bard's effective rate of 0.42%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Bard
Bard 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 Bard.
Who works in Bard, and how
Work in Bard centers on agriculture & forestry and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 64%
- Work from home 28%
- Transit, walk, or bike 9%
Life in Bard
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Bard.
What the weather is like in Bard, month by month
Bard sees roughly 134 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 98 degrees. January highs sit near 56, with lows near 22. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 56° | 38° | 22° |
| April | 78° | 58° | 40° |
| July | 98° | 81° | 65° |
| October | 78° | 59° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Bard
The nearest airport, Clovis Regional, is about 50 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Albuquerque International Sunport, about 196 miles away.
The best schools in and around Bard
Schools across Bard average a B−, better than 65% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- San Jon ElementaryA− · 56% proficient
Top middle schools
- San Jon Middle SchoolB+ · 50% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Bard school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Bard 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 Bard against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Bard
Is Bard a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Bard ranks 44,581st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on clean air, short commutes, and a stable housing market, and lowest on the cost of living against local pay and distance from a big city. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Bard expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $152,700. The overall cost of living runs about 14% below the national average. Set against a $33,300 median income, cost of living beats 3% of towns.
Is Bard safe?
Bard is safer than 8% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $806 per resident a year.
Compare Bard with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Bard. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Bard 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.
Bard detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Bard: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Bard: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Bard: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Bard: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Bard 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.