Best PlacesBates, ID Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Bates, 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.
Bates ranks 22,660th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on heat safety by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Bates
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.
Bates' strengths and weaknesses
Where Bates ranks high
- Heat safetyBetter than 99% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than 98% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 97% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 94% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 93% of towns
Where Bates ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 3% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 15% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 15% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 16% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Bates
A household needs to earn about $200,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Bates home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $83,796, 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 Bates' effective rate of 0.33%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Bates
Bates runs younger than the country, though it still carries a larger-than-average share of residents over 65, 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 Bates.
Who works in Bates, and how
Work in Bates centers on agriculture & forestry and professional & technical. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 48%
- Work from home 40%
- Transit, walk, or bike 12%
Life in Bates
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Bates.
What the weather is like in Bates, month by month
Bates sees roughly 70 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 34, with lows near 7. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 34° | 19° | 7° |
| April | 51° | 38° | 25° |
| July | 85° | 67° | 47° |
| October | 58° | 42° | 28° |
Flying in and out of Bates
The nearest airport, Jackson Hole, is about 25 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Salt Lake City International, about 203 miles away.
The best schools in and around Bates
Schools across Bates average a C, better than 40% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Rendezvous Upper Elementary SchoolC+ · 40% proficient
- Driggs Elementary SchoolC · 33% proficient
Top high schools
- Teton High SchoolC− · 30% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Bates school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Bates 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 Bates against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Bates
Is Bates a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Bates ranks 22,660th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on heat safety, state finances, and civic engagement, and lowest on an overheated housing market 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 Bates expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $818,889. The overall cost of living runs about 5% below the national average. Set against a $83,796 median income, cost of living beats 74% of towns.
Is Bates safe?
Bates is safer than 15% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $541 per resident a year.
Compare Bates with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Bates. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Bates 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.
Bates detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Bates: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Bates: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Bates: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Bates: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Bates 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.