Best PlacesCarson City, NV Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Carson City metro, 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.
Photo by Quintin Soloviev, CC BY 4.0, via commons
Carson City ranks 224th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on noise and disaster risk. It does better on biking, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Carson City 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.
Carson City's strengths and weaknesses
Carson City lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Biking, state finances, and state infrastructure carry most of that.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Noise, disaster risk, and tree cover hold the score down. That varies block to block rather than evenly, and the map below shows where.
Where Carson City ranks high
- BikingBetter than 94% of metro areas
- State fiscal healthBetter than 94% of metro areas
- State infrastructureBetter than 94% of metro areas
- Low property taxBetter than 93% of metro areas
- WalkabilityBetter than 92% of metro areas
Where Carson City ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 9% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 10% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than only 11% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than only 13% of metro areas
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 19% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Carson City
A household needs to earn about $113,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Carson City home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $78,893, 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 Carson City's effective rate of 0.43%, 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 Carson City
Carson City 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 Carson City.
Who works in Carson City, and how
Work in Carson City centers on health care & social and public administration. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Carson City
Carson City has more late-night spots per resident than 90% of metro areas. That concentrates in some parts of Carson City and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Carson City growing, and who is moving in?
Carson City has grown about 8% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Reno, NV.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Carson City go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Carson City, month by month
Carson City sees roughly 148 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 47, with lows near 25. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, August, and September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 47° | 35° | 25° |
| April | 65° | 51° | 37° |
| July | 92° | 76° | 58° |
| October | 70° | 52° | 36° |
Flying in and out of Carson City
The nearest airport, Reno/Tahoe International, is about 23 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Sacramento International, about 104 miles away.
The best schools in and around Carson City
Schools across Carson City average a C, better than 20% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Pleasant Valley ElementaryB · 47% proficient
- Jacks Valley Elementary SchoolB− · 43% proficient
- Edith W. Fritsch ElementaryB− · 41% proficient
Top middle schools
- Kendyl Depoali Middle SchoolB+ · 49% proficient
- Carson Valley Middle SchoolB− · 43% proficient
- Carson Middle SchoolC · 32% proficient
Top high schools
- Incline High SchoolB− · 43% proficient
- George Whittell High SchoolB− · 43% proficient
- Damonte Ranch High SchoolC+ · 40% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Carson City school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Carson City 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 Carson City against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Carson City suits
Common questions about living in Carson City
Is Carson City a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Carson City ranks 224th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on biking, state finances, and state infrastructure, and lowest on noise and disaster risk. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Carson City expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $453,743. The overall cost of living runs about 4% below the national average. Set against a $78,893 median income, cost of living beats 30% of metro areas.
Is Carson City safe?
Carson City is safer than 39% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $439 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Carson City?
July highs average about 92 degrees, and January highs near 47 with lows near 25. That works out to about 148 pleasant days a year, more than 86% of metro areas.
Is Carson City good for families?
Schools beat 20% of metro areas, crime safety beats 39%, and childcare runs $798 a month.
Is Carson City good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 30% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 13% of metro areas. About 10% of workers already work from home.
Compare Carson City with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Carson City. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Carson City 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.
Carson City detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Carson City: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Carson City: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Carson City: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Carson City: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Carson City 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.