Best PlacesBrandon, FL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Brandon, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Brandon ranks 1,179th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on state infrastructure by a wide margin, and car insurance costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Brandon
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.
Brandon's strengths and weaknesses
Where Brandon ranks high
- State infrastructureBetter than 96% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 95% of cities
- Internet speedBetter than 89% of cities
- Cell coverageBetter than 87% of cities
- State fiscal healthBetter than 76% of cities
Where Brandon ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 7% of cities
- Heat safetyBetter than only 11% of cities
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 12% of cities
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 21% of cities
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 24% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Brandon
A household needs to earn about $88,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Brandon home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $88,058, 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 Brandon's effective rate of 0.76%, 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 6 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Brandon
Brandon's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Brandon.
Who works in Brandon, and how
Work in Brandon 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 80%
- Work from home 17%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Brandon
Brandon has more restaurants and bars per resident than 84% of cities and more parkland per resident than 84% of cities. The coast is about 14 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Brandon and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Brandon, month by month
Brandon sees roughly 118 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 72, with lows near 50. The comfortable stretch runs November through April.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 72° | 60° | 50° |
| April | 86° | 73° | 62° |
| July | 92° | 81° | 74° |
| October | 87° | 76° | 68° |
Flying in and out of Brandon
Tampa International sits about 15 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 12.1 million passengers in 2025, with 135 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Brandon
Schools across Brandon average a B−, better than 50% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Patricia Sullivan Metropolitan Ministries Partnership SchoolA− · 58% proficient
- Limona Elementary SchoolB+ · 55% proficient
- Brooker Elementary SchoolB+ · 51% proficient
Top middle schools
- Burns Middle SchoolA− · 56% proficient
- Rodgers Middle Magnet SchoolB− · 40% proficient
- Mann Middle SchoolC− · 31% proficient
Top high schools
- Bloomingdale High SchoolB+ · 55% proficient
- Riverview High SchoolB · 49% proficient
- Spoto High SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Brandon school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Brandon 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 Brandon against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Brandon suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 17% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Brandon
Is Brandon a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Brandon ranks 1,179th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on state infrastructure, low taxes, and fast internet, and lowest on car insurance costs and summer heat. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Brandon expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $337,702. The overall cost of living runs about 14% below the national average. Set against a $88,058 median income, cost of living beats 60% of cities.
Is Brandon safe?
Brandon is safer than 50% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $215 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Brandon?
July highs average about 92 degrees, and January highs near 72 with lows near 50. That works out to about 118 pleasant days a year, more than 69% of cities.
Is Brandon good for families?
Schools beat 50% of cities, crime safety beats 50%, and childcare runs $973 a month.
Compare Brandon with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Brandon. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Brandon 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.
Brandon detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Brandon: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Brandon: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Brandon: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Brandon: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Brandon 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.