Best PlacesCarmen, ID Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Carmen, 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.
Carmen ranks 32,016th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on state finances by a wide margin, and the cost of living against local pay is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Carmen
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.
Carmen's strengths and weaknesses
Where Carmen ranks high
- State fiscal healthBetter than 98% of towns
- Short commute16.1 minutes each way, better than 96% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 95% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 94% of towns
- QuietBetter than 92% of towns
Where Carmen ranks low
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 3% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 3% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 3% of towns
- Household income$32,265 median, better than only 3% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Carmen
A household needs to earn about $93,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Carmen home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $32,265, 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 Carmen's effective rate of 0.30%, 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 Carmen
Carmen 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 Carmen.
Who works in Carmen, and how
Work in Carmen centers on retail trade and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 76%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 13%
Life in Carmen
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Carmen.
What the weather is like in Carmen, month by month
Carmen sees roughly 146 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 30, with lows near 8. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 30° | 18° | 8° |
| April | 61° | 44° | 29° |
| July | 90° | 70° | 50° |
| October | 60° | 43° | 30° |
Flying in and out of Carmen
The nearest airport, Bert Mooney, is about 82 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Boise Air Trml/Gowen Field, about 165 miles away.
The best schools in and around Carmen
Schools across Carmen average a C+, better than 45% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Upper Carmen Public Charter SchoolA+ · 75% proficient
- Salmon Pioneer Primary SchoolB− · 43% proficient
Top high schools
- Salmon Jr/sr High SchoolC · 33% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Carmen school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Carmen 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 Carmen against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Carmen
Is Carmen a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Carmen ranks 32,016th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on state finances, short commutes, and low property taxes, and lowest on the cost of living against local pay and distance from a big city. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Carmen expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $383,322. The overall cost of living runs about 4% below the national average. Set against a $32,265 median income, cost of living beats 3% of towns.
Is Carmen safe?
Yes, Carmen is safer than 76% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $248 per resident a year.
Compare Carmen with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Carmen. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Carmen 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.
Carmen detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Carmen: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Carmen: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Carmen: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Carmen: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Carmen 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.