Best PlacesBays, KY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Bays, 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.
Bays ranks 48,621st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on tree cover by a wide margin, and civic engagement ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Bays
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.
Bays' strengths and weaknesses
Where Bays ranks high
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 88% of towns
- Cheap childcare$545 a month, better than 88% of towns
- QuietBetter than 82% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 81% of towns
Where Bays ranks low
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 2% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 3% of towns
- Household income$23,282 median, better than only 3% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 4% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than only 5% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Bays
A household needs to earn about $16,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Bays home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $23,282, 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 Bays' effective rate of 0.47%, 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 3 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Bays
Bays runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Bays.
Who works in Bays, and how
Work in Bays centers on retail trade and hospitality & food. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 92%
- Work from home 5%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Bays
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Bays.
What the weather is like in Bays, month by month
Bays sees roughly 72 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 47, with lows near 27. The comfortable stretch runs April through June and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 47° | 36° | 27° |
| April | 72° | 58° | 46° |
| July | 87° | 76° | 67° |
| October | 73° | 60° | 49° |
Flying in and out of Bays
The nearest airport, Tri-State/Milton J Ferguson Field, is about 64 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International, about 125 miles away.
The best schools in and around Bays
Schools across Bays average a D+, better than 13% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Sebastian Elementary SchoolD · 20% proficient
- Salyersville Grade SchoolD− · 13% proficient
Top middle schools
- Herald Whitaker Middle SchoolD− · 18% proficient
Top high schools
- Breathitt County High SchoolD · 23% proficient
- Magoffin County High SchoolD− · 14% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Bays school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Bays 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 Bays against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Bays
Is Bays a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Bays ranks 48,621st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on tree cover, a stable housing market, and affordable childcare, and lowest on civic engagement and the cost of living against local pay. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Bays expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $64,409. The overall cost of living runs about 22% below the national average. Set against a $23,282 median income, cost of living beats 3% of towns.
Is Bays safe?
Bays is safer than 12% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $558 per resident a year.
Compare Bays with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Bays. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Bays 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.
Bays detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Bays: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Bays: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Bays: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Bays: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Bays 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.