Best PlacesBrook Forest, CO Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Brook Forest, 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.
Brook Forest ranks 6,432nd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on heat safety by a wide margin, and air quality ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Brook Forest
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.
Brook Forest's strengths and weaknesses
Where Brook Forest ranks high
- Heat safetyBetter than 99% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 98% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 97% of towns
- Household income$150,635 median, better than 97% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 97% of towns
Where Brook Forest ranks low
- Air qualityBetter than only 1% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,678 a month, better than only 1% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 4% of towns
- Short commute41.1 minutes each way, better than only 4% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 7% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Brook Forest
A household needs to earn about $210,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Brook Forest home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $150,635, 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 Brook Forest's effective rate of 0.42%, 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 Brook Forest
Brook Forest runs older than the country, 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 Brook Forest.
Who works in Brook Forest, and how
Work in Brook Forest centers on professional & technical and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 59%
- Work from home 36%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Brook Forest
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Brook Forest.
What the weather is like in Brook Forest, month by month
Brook Forest sees roughly 143 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 55 degrees. January highs sit near 15, with lows near 4. No month averages between 55 and 75 degrees.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 15° | 9° | 4° |
| April | 29° | 21° | 16° |
| July | 55° | 47° | 41° |
| October | 35° | 28° | 23° |
Flying in and out of Brook Forest
Denver International sits about 44 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 Brook Forest
Schools across Brook Forest average a B, better than 74% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Marshdale Elementary SchoolB · 46% proficient
- Deer Creek Elementary SchoolB− · 43% proficient
- Jefferson County Open Elementary SchoolB− · 40% proficient
Top middle schools
- Manning Options SchoolA · 65% proficient
- Fitzsimmons Middle SchoolB+ · 50% proficient
- West Jefferson Middle SchoolB− · 43% proficient
Top high schools
- D'evelyn Junior/senior High SchoolA · 73% proficient
- Conifer Senior High SchoolB+ · 58% proficient
- Platte Canyon High SchoolB · 47% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Brook Forest school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Brook Forest 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 Brook Forest against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Brook Forest
Is Brook Forest a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Brook Forest ranks 6,432nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on heat safety, an educated workforce, and civic engagement, and lowest on air quality and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Brook Forest expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $849,223. The overall cost of living runs about 11% above the national average. Set against a $150,635 median income, cost of living beats 97% of towns.
Is Brook Forest safe?
Brook Forest is safer than 45% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $444 per resident a year.
Compare Brook Forest with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Brook Forest. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Brook Forest 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.
Brook Forest detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Brook Forest: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Brook Forest: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Brook Forest: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Brook Forest: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Brook Forest 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.