Best PlacesBear River, WY Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Bear River, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Bear River ranks 6,975th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on heat safety by a wide margin, and thin health care access ranks lowest.

#6,975
of 50,333 towns
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 50,333 towns
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Bear River

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Bear River area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

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.

Bear River's strengths and weaknesses

Top 1%Heat safety
Top 3%A strong job market
Top 3%Low taxes
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Bear River with other towns.

Where Bear River ranks high

  • Heat safetyBetter than 99% of towns
  • Local economyBetter than 98% of towns
  • Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 98% of towns
  • Nice weatherabout 174 pleasant days a year, better than 97% of towns
  • Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 95% of towns

Where Bear River ranks low

  • Healthcare accessBetter than only 5% of towns
  • Air qualityBetter than only 7% of towns
  • Tree shadeBetter than only 9% of towns
  • Voter turnoutBetter than only 18% of towns
  • WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns

What it costs to buy a home in Bear River

A household needs to earn about $81,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Bear River home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $116,580, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$81,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$1,900
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $323,008 home
Median rent
$2,011
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$1,647
Property tax$145
Homeowners insurance$108

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 Bear River's effective rate of 0.54%, 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 5 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Bear River

Bear River's age mix sits close to the national median.

Median age
39
younger than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
16%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.6
near the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1825%
18 to 3420%
35 to 4920%
50 to 6420%
65 and older16%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Bear River.


Who works in Bear River, and how

Work in Bear River centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
3%
below the national average
Unemployment
2.2%
below the national average
Job growth
+14.9%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social28%
Retail trade18%
Manufacturing9%
Mining & oil & gas8%
Public administration8%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 95%
  • Work from home 3%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 2%

Life in Bear River

The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Bear River.


What the weather is like in Bear River, month by month

Bear River sees roughly 174 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 31, with lows near 12. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January31°22°12°
April53°39°27°
July86°70°53°
October60°44°32°

Flying in and out of Bear River

Salt Lake City International sits about 65 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 13.4 million passengers in 2025, with 154 nonstop destinations.

Nearest airport
SLC
Salt Lake City International, about 65 miles
Airport size
Large hub
23rd-busiest in the US, 154 nonstop destinations
Average drive
92 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Bear River

Schools across Bear River average a C+, better than 55% of towns.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Bear River school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Bear River 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 Bear River against the other 50,332 towns.


Common questions about living in Bear River

Is Bear River a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Bear River ranks 6,975th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on heat safety, a strong job market, and low taxes, and lowest on thin health care access and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Bear River expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $323,008. The overall cost of living runs about 13% below the national average. Set against a $116,580 median income, cost of living beats 95% of towns.

Is Bear River safe?

Bear River is safer than 44% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $321 per resident a year.


Compare Bear River with other towns


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Bear River. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Bear River 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.

Bear River detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Bear River: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Bear River: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Bear River: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Bear River: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Bear River detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.