Best PlacesBoulder, CO Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Boulder metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages hide a wide spread here, so the area matters as much as the address. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by itworkonline, Unsplash License, via unsplash
Boulder ranks 61st of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. Paychecks stretch further here than almost anywhere else: the median household brings in $116,906, wages outrun the cost of living, and an educated workforce ranks near the top of the country. The main drawbacks are childcare costs, air quality, and state finances.
The best neighborhoods in the Boulder 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 Boulder
The towns and districts of the Boulder 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.
Erie
More households have young kids, local pay stretches further, and incomes run higher.
Louisville & Superior
More adults hold degrees and crime runs lower.
Lafayette
Disaster risk is lower.
Gunbarrel
Transit reaches fewer jobs and streets are more car-dependent.
Longmont
Advertised internet is faster, though schools score lower.
Lyons
More homes sit empty and biking is worse.
Downtown Boulder
Prices have run up more.
Nederland
Tree cover is thicker, though health care is harder to reach.
Boulder shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 14% of the country and others in the top 2%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Boulder's strengths and weaknesses
Boulder ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Biking is the standout, in the top 1% of metro areas. An educated workforce and population health follow.
The one real hole is childcare costs, near the bottom of the country. Air quality and state finances also cost it ground. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Boulder ranks high
- BikingBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Educational attainmentBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Health outlookBetter than 99% of metro areas
- TransitBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Heat safetyBetter than 97% of metro areas
Where Boulder ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,834 a month, better than only 1% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than only 2% of metro areas
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 6% of metro areas
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 22% of metro areas
- Crime safetyBetter than only 23% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Boulder
A household needs to earn about $208,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Boulder home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $116,906, 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 Boulder's effective rate of 0.53%, 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 Boulder
Boulder's age mix sits close to the national median, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Boulder.
Who works in Boulder, and how
Work in Boulder centers on professional & technical and education. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 57%
- Work from home 32%
- Transit, walk, or bike 12%
Life in Boulder
Boulder has more parkland per resident than 86% of metro areas. That concentrates in some parts of Boulder and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Boulder growing, and who is moving in?
Boulder has grown about 6% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Denver, CO.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Boulder go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Boulder, month by month
Boulder sees roughly 95 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 44, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 44° | 32° | 23° |
| April | 64° | 49° | 38° |
| July | 90° | 75° | 61° |
| October | 67° | 52° | 40° |
Flying in and out of Boulder
Denver International sits about 33 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 40.1 million passengers in 2025, with 250 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Boulder
Schools across Boulder average a C+, better than 48% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Bear Creek Elementary SchoolA+ · 78% proficient
- High Peaks Elementary SchoolA+ · 75% proficient
- Gold Hill Elementary SchoolA+ · 75% proficient
Top middle schools
- Summit Middle Charter SchoolA+ · 80% proficient
- Southern Hills Middle SchoolA · 66% proficient
- Altona Middle SchoolA− · 54% proficient
Top high schools
- Fairview High SchoolA+ · 82% proficient
- Boulder High SchoolA · 67% proficient
- Monarch High SchoolA− · 66% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Boulder school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Boulder 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 Boulder against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Boulder suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 90% of metro areas, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 32% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Boulder
Is Boulder a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Boulder ranks 61st of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on biking, an educated workforce, and population health, and lowest on childcare costs and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Boulder expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $824,376. The overall cost of living runs about 14% above the national average. Set against a $116,906 median income, cost of living beats 90% of metro areas.
Is Boulder safe?
Boulder is safer than 23% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $592 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Boulder?
July highs average about 90 degrees, and January highs near 44 with lows near 23. That works out to about 95 pleasant days a year, more than 55% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Boulder?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Erie, Louisville & Superior, and Lafayette. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Boulder good for families?
Schools beat 48% of metro areas, crime safety beats 23%, and childcare runs $1,834 a month.
Is Boulder good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 90% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 84% of metro areas. About 32% of workers already work from home.
Compare Boulder with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Boulder. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Boulder 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.
Boulder detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Boulder: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Boulder: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Boulder: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Boulder: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Boulder 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.