Best PlacesChical, NM Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Chical, 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.
Chical ranks 47,400th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on the weather by a wide margin, and internet speeds rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Chical
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.
Chical's strengths and weaknesses
Where Chical ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 163 pleasant days a year, better than 96% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 80% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 78% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 77% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 72% of towns
Where Chical ranks low
- Internet speedBetter than only 2% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 3% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 3% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 5% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 5% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Chical
A household needs to earn about $34,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Chical home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $48,889, 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 Chical's effective rate of 0.50%, 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.
Who lives in Chical
Chical runs younger than the country, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Chical.
Who works in Chical, and how
Work in Chical centers on construction and retail trade. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 90%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Chical
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Chical.
What the weather is like in Chical, month by month
Chical sees roughly 163 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 47, with lows near 20. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 47° | 33° | 20° |
| April | 71° | 54° | 36° |
| July | 92° | 77° | 60° |
| October | 72° | 56° | 39° |
Flying in and out of Chical
Albuquerque International Sunport sits about 32 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 2.6 million passengers in 2025, with 69 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Chical
Schools across Chical average a C−, better than 26% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Cubero ElementaryB · 50% proficient
Top high schools
- Los Lunas HighC+ · 40% proficient
- Belen HighC · 31% proficient
- Rio Grande HighD− · 13% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Chical school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Chical 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 Chical against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Chical
Is Chical a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Chical ranks 47,400th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on the weather, low disaster risk, and heat safety, and lowest on internet speeds and thin health care access. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Chical expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $134,300. The overall cost of living runs about 13% below the national average. Set against a $48,889 median income, cost of living beats 9% of towns.
Is Chical safe?
Chical is safer than 5% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $930 per resident a year.
Compare Chical with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Chical. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Chical 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.
Chical detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Chical: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Chical: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Chical: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Chical: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Chical 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.