Best PlacesCarolina, PR Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Carolina, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Distance to the water drives a lot of the difference between one part and the next. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Carolina is unranked among cities under the default weighting. The coast is about 6 minutes away. Its strengths are low property taxes and affordable childcare. The cost shows up in the weather, disaster risk, and state infrastructure.
The best neighborhoods in Carolina
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 Carolina
The parts of Carolina, 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.
Urbanizacion Los Colobos Park, Barrio Buena Ventura & Ciudad Jardin
Prices have run up less, fewer homes sit empty, and incomes run higher.
Urbanizacion El Comandante
Advertised internet is faster, though it is noisier.
Urbanizacion Metropolis, Urbanizacion San Martin & Villa de San Anton
More households have young kids, though streets are more car-dependent.
Villa Carolina, Villa Fontana & Valle Arriba Hts
Fewer adults hold degrees.
Jardines de Country Club & Urbanizacion Sabana Gdns
Urbanizacion Country Club, Urbanizacion Los Angeles & Urbanizacion Vistamar
Crime runs higher and homes cost more.
Jardines de Carolina, Urbanizacion Jose S Quinones & Paseo de Prado
Scores close to Urbanizacion Country Club, Urbanizacion Los Angeles & Urbanizacion Vistamar, except that biking is worse here.
Jardines de Buena Vista
Scores across Carolina run from about the 1st to the 5th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Carolina's strengths and weaknesses
Carolina lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Low property taxes is the standout, in the top 1% of cities. Affordable childcare and walkability follow.
The one real hole is the weather, near the bottom of the country. Disaster risk and state infrastructure also cost it ground. The detail is below, and the map is where it turns into a choice of neighborhood rather than just a place.
Where Carolina ranks high
- Low property taxBetter than 99% of cities
- Cheap childcare$414 a month, better than 99% of cities
- WalkabilityBetter than 82% of cities
- Air qualityBetter than 78% of cities
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 77% of cities
Where Carolina ranks low
- Nice weatherabout 0 pleasant days a year, better than only 1% of cities
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 1% of cities
- State infrastructureBetter than only 1% of cities
- Household income$39,972 median, better than only 1% of cities
- Cell coverageBetter than only 1% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Carolina
A household needs to earn about $38,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Carolina home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $39,972, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
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 Carolina's effective rate of 0.11%, 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 Carolina
Carolina 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 Carolina.
Who works in Carolina, and how
Work in Carolina centers on retail trade and health care & social. Unemployment sits above the national rate.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 83%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Carolina
Carolina has more restaurants and bars per resident than 77% of cities and more parkland per resident than 78% of cities. The coast is about 6 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Carolina and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Carolina, month by month
Carolina sees roughly 0 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 85, with lows near 73. No month averages between 55 and 75 degrees.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 85° | 78° | 73° |
| April | 87° | 79° | 74° |
| July | 90° | 83° | 78° |
| October | 90° | 83° | 78° |
Flying in and out of Carolina
Luis Munoz Marin International sits about 3 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 6.7 million passengers in 2025, with 88 nonstop destinations.
Carolina 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 Carolina against cities nationally.
Who Carolina suits
Families
Weigh schools and safety yourself on the map to find the right neighborhoods.
Retirees
Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.
Common questions about living in Carolina
Is Carolina a good place to live?
It scores highest on low property taxes, affordable childcare, and walkability, and lowest on the weather and disaster risk. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Carolina expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $162,434. Set against a $39,972 median income, cost of living beats 50% of cities.
Is Carolina safe?
Carolina is safer than 2% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $816 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Carolina?
July highs average about 90 degrees, and January highs near 85 with lows near 73. That works out to about 0 pleasant days a year, more than 0% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Carolina?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Urbanizacion Los Colobos Park, Barrio Buena Ventura & Ciudad Jardin, Urbanizacion El Comandante, and Urbanizacion Metropolis, Urbanizacion San Martin & Villa de San Anton. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Compare Carolina with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Carolina. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Carolina 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.
Carolina detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Carolina: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Carolina: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Carolina: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Carolina: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Carolina 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.