Best PlacesBend, OR Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Bend metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by David Wilson, CC BY 2.0, via wiki
Bend ranks 50th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It does not top any single list, but it lands above the national middle on civic engagement and state infrastructure. The weaker spots are internet speeds, an overheated housing market, and air quality.
The best neighborhoods in the Bend metro
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 Bend
The towns and districts of the Bend metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Downtown Bend
Fewer homes sit empty and prices have run up less.
La Pine & Three Rivers
Tree cover is thicker, though fewer households have young kids.
Sisters
Biking is worse and disaster risk is higher.
Powell Butte
It is quieter, though commutes are longer.
Prineville & Madras
Homes cost less, though fewer adults hold degrees.
Terrebonne, Culver & Warm Springs
Schools score lower and streets are more car-dependent.
Bend shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 7% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Bend's strengths and weaknesses
Bend ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Civic engagement, state infrastructure, and the weather carry most of that.
The one real hole is internet speeds, near the bottom of the country. An overheated housing market and air quality also cost it ground. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Bend ranks high
- Voter turnoutBetter than 96% of metro areas
- State infrastructureBetter than 92% of metro areas
- Nice weatherabout 167 pleasant days a year, better than 92% of metro areas
- Local economyBetter than 92% of metro areas
- Crime safetyBetter than 86% of metro areas
Where Bend ranks low
- Internet speedBetter than only 3% of metro areas
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 7% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than only 13% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$1,311 a month, better than only 14% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than only 21% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Bend
A household needs to earn about $160,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Bend home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $94,132, 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 Bend's effective rate of 0.61%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Bend
Bend runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Bend.
Who works in Bend, and how
Work in Bend centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 74%
- Work from home 21%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Bend
Bend has more restaurants and bars per resident than 69% of metro areas and more late-night spots per resident than 79% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Bend and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Bend growing, and who is moving in?
Bend has grown about 24% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Portland, OR.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Bend go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Bend, month by month
Bend sees roughly 167 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 45, with lows near 27. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 45° | 34° | 27° |
| April | 62° | 47° | 35° |
| July | 90° | 72° | 54° |
| October | 66° | 50° | 38° |
Flying in and out of Bend
The nearest airport, Roberts Field, is about 16 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Portland International, about 124 miles away.
The best schools in and around Bend
Schools across Bend average a B, better than 70% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Highland School At Kenwood Elementary SchoolA+ · 77% proficient
- High Lakes Elementary SchoolA · 68% proficient
- William E Miller ElementaryA · 65% proficient
Top middle schools
- Pacific Crest Middle SchoolA · 61% proficient
- Realms Middle SchoolA− · 55% proficient
- Cascade Middle SchoolB+ · 52% proficient
Top high schools
- Crook County High SchoolA+ · 90% proficient
- Bend Senior High SchoolA− · 65% proficient
- Sisters High SchoolB+ · 56% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Bend school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Bend 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 Bend against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Bend suits
Retirees
The weather beats 92% of metro areas and it is quieter than 82%.
Common questions about living in Bend
Is Bend a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Bend ranks 50th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on civic engagement, state infrastructure, and the weather, and lowest on internet speeds and an overheated housing market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Bend expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $628,329. The overall cost of living runs about 4% above the national average. Set against a $94,132 median income, cost of living beats 63% of metro areas.
Is Bend safe?
Yes, Bend is safer than 86% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $327 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Bend?
July highs average about 90 degrees, and January highs near 45 with lows near 27. That works out to about 167 pleasant days a year, more than 92% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Bend?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Downtown Bend, La Pine & Three Rivers, and Sisters. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Bend good for families?
Schools beat 70% of metro areas, crime safety beats 86%, and childcare runs $1,311 a month.
Is Bend good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 63% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 3% of metro areas. About 21% of workers already work from home.
Compare Bend with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Bend. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Bend 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.
Bend detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Bend: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Bend: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Bend: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Bend: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Bend 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.