Best PlacesBella Vista, AR Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Bella Vista, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Costs and crime read low across the board, which puts the choice down to which part suits you. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Bella Vista ranks 621st of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on tree cover by a wide margin, and walkability ranks lowest.

#621
of 2,098 cities
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 2,098 cities
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Bella Vista

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Bella Vista 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.

The best areas in Bella Vista

The parts of Bella Vista, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first.

#1

Gloucester

WorseBetter
82nd nationally
#2

York

WorseBetter
78th nationally
#3

Essex & Brompton

WorseBetter
75th nationally

Scores across Bella Vista run from about the 50th to the 88th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.


Bella Vista's strengths and weaknesses

Top 1%Tree cover
Top 10%A strong job market
Top 10%Low crime
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Bella Vista with other cities.

Where Bella Vista ranks high

  • Tree shadeBetter than 99% of cities
  • Local economyBetter than 92% of cities
  • Crime safetyBetter than 92% of cities
  • State fiscal healthBetter than 92% of cities
  • Healthcare accessBetter than 91% of cities

Where Bella Vista ranks low

  • WalkabilityBetter than only 1% of cities
  • Big-city accessBetter than only 10% of cities
  • Cell coverageBetter than only 11% of cities
  • TransitBetter than only 13% of cities
  • Internet speedBetter than only 23% of cities

What it costs to buy a home in Bella Vista

A household needs to earn about $81,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Bella Vista home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $100,705, 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
$1,897
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $321,307 home
Median rent
$1,397
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$1,638
Property tax$151
Homeowners insurance$107

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 Bella Vista's effective rate of 0.56%, 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 8 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 Bella Vista

Bella Vista runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.

Median age
51
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
31%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.4
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1816%
18 to 3416%
35 to 4918%
50 to 6419%
65 and older31%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Bella Vista.


Who works in Bella Vista, and how

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

Work from home
23%
above the national average
Unemployment
3.5%
below the national average
Job growth
+8.5%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Retail trade24%
Health care & social9%
Professional & technical8%
Education8%
Manufacturing8%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 76%
  • Work from home 23%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 1%

Life in Bella Vista

Bella Vista has more parkland per resident than 91% of cities. That concentrates in some parts of Bella Vista and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
63
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 20.6 per 10,000 residents, more than 54% of cities
Parkland
239 acres
about 7.8 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 91% of cities

What the weather is like in Bella Vista, month by month

Bella Vista sees roughly 80 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 47, with lows near 28. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January47°36°28°
April70°59°49°
July90°80°71°
October73°61°51°

Flying in and out of Bella Vista

The nearest airport, Northwest Arkansas Ntl, is about 13 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Kansas City International, about 197 miles away.

Nearest airport
XNA
Northwest Arkansas Ntl, about 13 miles
Airport size
Small hub
97th-busiest in the US, 63 nonstop destinations
Average drive
19 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Bella Vista

Schools across Bella Vista average a B, better than 63% of cities.

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 Bella Vista school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Bella Vista 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 Bella Vista against the other 2,097 cities.


Who Bella Vista suits

Families

Schools beat 63% of cities and crime safety beats 92%.

See the families priority ↑

Remote workers

Cost of living against local pay beats 79% of cities and 23% already work from home.

See the remote-work priority ↑

Retirees

Health care access beats 91%.

See the retirees priority ↑


Common questions about living in Bella Vista

Is Bella Vista a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Bella Vista ranks 621st of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on tree cover, a strong job market, and low crime, and lowest on walkability 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 Bella Vista expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $321,307. The overall cost of living runs about 13% below the national average. Set against a $100,705 median income, cost of living beats 79% of cities.

Is Bella Vista safe?

Yes, Bella Vista is safer than 92% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $280 per resident a year.

What is the weather like in Bella Vista?

July highs average about 90 degrees, and January highs near 47 with lows near 28. That works out to about 80 pleasant days a year, more than 44% of cities.

What are the best neighborhoods in Bella Vista?

Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Gloucester, York, and Essex & Brompton. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.


Compare Bella Vista with other cities


Sources and methodology

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

Bella Vista detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

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

Bella Vista 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.