Best PlacesBay Minette, AL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Bay Minette, 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.
Bay Minette ranks 38,697th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low property taxes by a wide margin, and disaster risk is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Bay Minette
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.
Bay Minette's strengths and weaknesses
Where Bay Minette ranks high
- Low property taxBetter than 96% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 89% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 137 pleasant days a year, better than 88% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 86% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 86% of towns
Where Bay Minette ranks low
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 3% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 11% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 19% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 22% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 23% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Bay Minette
A household needs to earn about $51,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Bay Minette home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $61,450, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
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 Bay Minette's effective rate of 0.27%, 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 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Bay Minette
Bay Minette runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Bay Minette.
Who works in Bay Minette, and how
Work in Bay Minette centers on retail trade and manufacturing. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 94%
- Work from home 5%
- Transit, walk, or bike 1%
Life in Bay Minette
Bay Minette has more restaurants and bars per resident than 67% of towns. The coast is about 24 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Bay Minette and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Bay Minette, month by month
Bay Minette sees roughly 137 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 62, with lows near 42. The comfortable stretch runs February through May and October through December.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 62° | 51° | 42° |
| April | 77° | 66° | 56° |
| July | 89° | 80° | 74° |
| October | 81° | 69° | 60° |
Flying in and out of Bay Minette
The nearest airport, Mobile International, is about 24 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Louis Armstrong New Orleans International, about 159 miles away.
The best schools in and around Bay Minette
Schools across Bay Minette average a C−, better than 27% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Spanish Fort Elementary SchoolA · 68% proficient
- Stapleton SchoolB · 50% proficient
- Perdido Elementary SchoolB · 47% proficient
Top middle schools
- Spanish Fort Middle SchoolA− · 54% proficient
- Central Baldwin Middle SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
- Bay Minette Middle SchoolC− · 30% proficient
Top high schools
- Spanish Fort High SchoolB · 46% proficient
- Robertsdale High SchoolC+ · 36% proficient
- Baldwin County High SchoolD · 22% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Bay Minette school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Bay Minette 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 Bay Minette against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Bay Minette
Is Bay Minette a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Bay Minette ranks 38,697th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low property taxes, state infrastructure, and the weather, and lowest on disaster risk and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Bay Minette expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $208,492. The overall cost of living runs about 18% below the national average. Set against a $61,450 median income, cost of living beats 34% of towns.
Is Bay Minette safe?
Bay Minette is safer than 22% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $432 per resident a year.
Compare Bay Minette with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Bay Minette. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Bay Minette 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.
Bay Minette detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Bay Minette: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Bay Minette: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Bay Minette: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Bay Minette: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Bay Minette 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.