Best PlacesBurlington, VT Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Burlington 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 Michelle Maria, CC BY 3.0, via commons
Burlington ranks 47th 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 an educated workforce and population health. The weaker spots are cell coverage, childcare costs, and state finances.
The best neighborhoods in the Burlington 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 Burlington
The towns and districts of the Burlington 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.
Underhill, Fairfax & Jericho
More households have young kids, it is quieter, and tree cover is thicker.
Williston & Hinesburg
Schools score higher and local pay stretches further.
Richmond
Prices have run up less, though biking is worse.
Essex & Milton
Fewer homes sit empty, though streets are more car-dependent.
Downtown Burlington
More adults hold degrees, though crime runs higher.
Colchester & Winooski
Scores close to Downtown Burlington, except that more residents vote here.
Richford & Enosburg Falls
Homes cost less, though health outcomes score lower.
St. Albans & Swanton
Incomes run lower.
Burlington shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 12% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Burlington's strengths and weaknesses
Burlington ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. An educated workforce, population health, and heat safety carry most of that.
The one real hole is cell coverage, near the bottom of the country. Childcare costs 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 Burlington ranks high
- Educational attainmentBetter than 97% of metro areas
- Health outlookBetter than 96% of metro areas
- Heat safetyBetter than 93% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than 93% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than 90% of metro areas
Where Burlington ranks low
- Cell coverageBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$1,628 a month, better than only 3% of metro areas
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 12% of metro areas
- Low property taxBetter than only 14% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than only 16% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Burlington
A household needs to earn about $119,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Burlington home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $98,255, 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 Burlington's effective rate of 1.46%, 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 Burlington
Burlington'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 Burlington.
Who works in Burlington, and how
Work in Burlington centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 71%
- Work from home 18%
- Transit, walk, or bike 11%
Life in Burlington
Burlington has more restaurants and bars per resident than 74% of metro areas and less late-night activity than most metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Burlington and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Burlington growing, and who is moving in?
Burlington has grown about 6% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Boston, MA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Burlington go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Burlington, month by month
Burlington sees roughly 76 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 33, with lows near 15. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 33° | 24° | 15° |
| April | 59° | 46° | 35° |
| July | 86° | 74° | 63° |
| October | 64° | 53° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Burlington
The nearest airport, Patrick Leahy Burlington International, is about 3 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Bradley International, about 178 miles away.
The best schools in and around Burlington
Schools across Burlington average a B+, better than 90% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Champlain SchoolB · 48% proficient
- Edmunds Elementary SchoolB · 48% proficient
- C. P. Smith SchoolB− · 42% proficient
Top middle schools
- Edmunds Middle SchoolB · 43% proficient
- Colchester Middle SchoolB− · 42% proficient
- Lyman C. Hunt Middle SchoolC+ · 37% proficient
Top high schools
- Burlington High SchoolB · 50% proficient
- Colchester High SchoolB− · 43% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Burlington school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Burlington 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 Burlington against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Burlington suits
Common questions about living in Burlington
Is Burlington a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Burlington ranks 47th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on an educated workforce, population health, and heat safety, and lowest on cell coverage and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Burlington expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $418,343. The overall cost of living runs about 6% above the national average. Set against a $98,255 median income, cost of living beats 64% of metro areas.
Is Burlington safe?
Yes, Burlington is safer than 70% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $306 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Burlington?
July highs average about 86 degrees, and January highs near 33 with lows near 15. That works out to about 76 pleasant days a year, more than 34% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Burlington?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Underhill, Fairfax & Jericho, Williston & Hinesburg, and Richmond. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Burlington good for families?
Schools beat 90% of metro areas, crime safety beats 70%, and childcare runs $1,628 a month.
Is Burlington good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 64% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 16% of metro areas. About 18% of workers already work from home.
Compare Burlington with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Burlington. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Burlington 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.
Burlington detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Burlington: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Burlington: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Burlington: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Burlington: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Burlington 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.