Best PlacesCape Coral, FL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Cape Coral, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Costs and crime read low across the board, which puts the choice down to which part suits you. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Cape Coral ranks 291st of 445 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It earns the spot by being affordable and steady rather than flashy: local pay stretches further than in most of the country, and crime is low. The trade is summer heat: the nearest large city and its jobs, flights, and culture are a drive away.
The best neighborhoods in Cape Coral
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 Cape Coral
The parts of Cape Coral, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the city.
Pelican
Biking is better and crime runs lower.
Mariner
More households have young kids and fewer homes sit empty.
Casa Di Fiori
Incomes run lower and local pay stretches less far.
Scores across Cape Coral run from about the 14th to the 84th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Cape Coral's strengths and weaknesses
Cape Coral lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Low crime is the standout, in the top 1% of cities. State infrastructure and low taxes follow.
The one real hole is summer heat, near the bottom of the country. Empty homes and walkability also cost it ground. That varies block to block rather than evenly, and the map below shows where.
Where Cape Coral ranks high
- Crime safetyBetter than 99% of cities
- State infrastructureBetter than 95% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 95% of cities
- Local economyBetter than 92% of cities
- QuietBetter than 89% of cities
Where Cape Coral ranks low
- Heat safetyBetter than only 2% of cities
- Low vacancyBetter than only 4% of cities
- WalkabilityBetter than only 6% of cities
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 7% of cities
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 12% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Cape Coral
A household needs to earn about $103,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Cape Coral home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $80,856, 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 Cape Coral's effective rate of 0.86%, 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 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Cape Coral
Cape Coral runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Cape Coral.
Who works in Cape Coral, and how
Work in Cape Coral centers on retail trade and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 81%
- Work from home 16%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Cape Coral
Cape Coral has more restaurants and bars per resident than 71% of cities and more parkland per resident than 76% of cities. The coast is about 25 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Cape Coral and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Cape Coral, month by month
Cape Coral sees roughly 114 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 93 degrees. January highs sit near 77, with lows near 54. The comfortable stretch runs November through March.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 77° | 65° | 54° |
| April | 88° | 76° | 65° |
| July | 93° | 83° | 76° |
| October | 89° | 78° | 71° |
Flying in and out of Cape Coral
Southwest Florida International sits about 15 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 5.5 million passengers in 2025, with 103 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Cape Coral
Schools across Cape Coral average a B, better than 77% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Oasis Charter Elementary School-southA · 70% proficient
- Oasis Elementary Charter School-northA · 66% proficient
- Cape Elementary SchoolA · 64% proficient
Top middle schools
- Oasis Charter Middle SchoolA · 65% proficient
- Trafalgar Middle SchoolA · 65% proficient
- Gulf Middle SchoolA · 63% proficient
Top high schools
- Oasis Charter High SchoolA · 73% proficient
- Cape Coral High SchoolB+ · 58% proficient
- Charlotte High SchoolB+ · 52% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Cape Coral school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Cape Coral 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 Cape Coral against the other 444 cities.
Who Cape Coral suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 16% already work from home.
Retirees
The weather beats 55% of cities, health care access beats 76%, and it is quieter than 89%.
Common questions about living in Cape Coral
Is Cape Coral a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Cape Coral ranks 291st of 445 cities. It scores highest on low crime, state infrastructure, and low taxes, and lowest on summer heat and empty homes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Cape Coral expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $389,424. The overall cost of living runs about 4% below the national average. Set against a $80,856 median income, cost of living beats 40% of cities.
Is Cape Coral safe?
Yes, Cape Coral is safer than 99% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $128 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Cape Coral?
July highs average about 93 degrees, and January highs near 77 with lows near 54. That works out to about 114 pleasant days a year, more than 55% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Cape Coral?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Pelican, Mariner, and Casa Di Fiori. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Cape Coral good for families?
Schools beat 77% of cities, crime safety beats 99%, and childcare runs $820 a month.
Is Cape Coral good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 40% of cities, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 85% of cities. About 16% of workers already work from home.
Compare Cape Coral with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Cape Coral. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Cape Coral 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.
Cape Coral detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Cape Coral: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Cape Coral: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Cape Coral: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Cape Coral: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Cape Coral 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.