Best PlacesCalhoun County, FL Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in Calhoun County, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Calhoun County ranks 2,800th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on state infrastructure by a wide margin, and internet speeds rank lowest.

#2,800
of 3,144 counties
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 3,144 counties
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Calhoun County

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Calhoun County area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

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.

Calhoun County's strengths and weaknesses

Top 3%State infrastructure
Top 10%Quiet
Top 10%Low taxes
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Calhoun County with other counties.

Where Calhoun County ranks high

  • State infrastructureBetter than 99% of counties
  • QuietBetter than 95% of counties
  • Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 95% of counties
  • School gradeB+, better than 85% of counties
  • Tree shadeBetter than 67% of counties

Where Calhoun County ranks low

  • Internet speedBetter than only 2% of counties
  • Disaster safetyBetter than only 4% of counties
  • Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 5% of counties
  • Heat safetyBetter than only 6% of counties
  • Household income$48,808 median, better than only 7% of counties

What it costs to buy a home in Calhoun County

A household needs to earn about $37,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Calhoun County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $48,808, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$37,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$856
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $144,263 home
Median rent
$997
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$736
Property tax$73
Homeowners insurance$48

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 Calhoun County's effective rate of 0.60%, 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 4 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Calhoun County

Calhoun County runs older than the country.

Median age
44
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
19%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.5
near the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1819%
18 to 3420%
35 to 4920%
50 to 6421%
65 and older20%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Calhoun County.


Who works in Calhoun County, and how

Work in Calhoun County centers on health care & social and public administration. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
5%
below the national average
Unemployment
6.2%
above the national average
Job growth
+3.0%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social19%
Public administration13%
Construction11%
Retail trade11%
Admin & support services7%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 91%
  • Work from home 5%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 4%

Life in Calhoun County

Calhoun County has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most counties and more parkland per resident than 67% of counties. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Calhoun County and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
44
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 32.2 per 10,000 residents, more than 17% of counties
Parkland
82 acres
about 6.0 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 67% of counties

Is Calhoun County growing, and who is moving in?

Calhoun County has lost about 8% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Panama City, FL.

Population growth
-8%
over the decade, vs about 6% nationally
Population
13,278
down from 14,450
Population by year. Source: U.S. Census Population Estimates Program.

Where new residents come from

Panama City, FL485 / yr
Liberty County, FL201 / yr
Manchester, NH151 / yr
Osceola County, IA133 / yr
Jacksonville, FL105 / yr

Where people leaving Calhoun County go

Liberty County, FL165 / yr
Tampa, FL130 / yr
Tallahassee, FL93 / yr
Chattanooga, TN86 / yr
Jackson County, FL66 / yr

Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.


What the weather is like in Calhoun County, month by month

Calhoun County sees roughly 105 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 93 degrees. January highs sit near 64, with lows near 42. The comfortable stretch runs February through May and October through December.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January64°51°42°
April80°68°57°
July93°81°74°
October83°70°60°

Flying in and out of Calhoun County

The nearest airport, Northwest Florida Beaches International, is about 41 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Jacksonville International, about 205 miles away.

Nearest airport
ECP
Northwest Florida Beaches International, about 41 miles
Airport size
Small hub
106th-busiest in the US, 37 nonstop destinations
Average drive
58 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Calhoun County

Schools across Calhoun County average a B+, better than 85% of counties.

Top elementary schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Calhoun County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Calhoun County 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 Calhoun County against the other 3,143 counties.


Common questions about living in Calhoun County

Is Calhoun County a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Calhoun County ranks 2,800th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on state infrastructure, quiet, and low taxes, and lowest on internet speeds and disaster risk. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Calhoun County expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $144,263. The overall cost of living runs about 18% below the national average. Set against a $48,808 median income, cost of living beats 5% of counties.

Is Calhoun County safe?

Calhoun County is safer than 41% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $236 per resident a year.


Compare Calhoun County with other counties


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Calhoun County. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Calhoun County 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.

Calhoun County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Calhoun County: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Calhoun County: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Calhoun County: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Calhoun County: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Calhoun County detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
  3. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  4. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  5. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  6. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  7. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  8. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  9. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  10. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  11. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  12. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  13. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.