Best PlacesCoeur d'Alene, ID Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Coeur d'Alene metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Spicypepper999, CC0, via commons
Coeur d'Alene ranks 16th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It does not top any single list, but it lands above the national middle on low crime and low disaster risk. The weaker spots are an overheated housing market, transit, and distance from a big city.
The best neighborhoods in the Coeur d'Alene 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.
The best areas in Coeur d'Alene
The towns and districts of the Coeur d'Alene metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Hayden
Fewer homes sit empty, more residents vote, and more households have young kids.
Athol
Tree cover is thicker, though biking is worse.
Downtown Coeur d'Alene
Commutes are shorter, though it is noisier.
Rathdrum
Fewer adults hold degrees and streets are more car-dependent.
Post Falls
Health care is harder to reach.
Scores across Coeur d'Alene run from about the 22nd to the 97th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Coeur d'Alene's strengths and weaknesses
Coeur d'Alene ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Low crime is the standout, in the top 1% of metro areas. Low disaster risk and state finances follow.
The one real hole is an overheated housing market, near the bottom of the country. Transit and distance from a big city also cost it ground. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Coeur d'Alene ranks high
- Crime safetyBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than 99% of metro areas
- State fiscal healthBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 95% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than 95% of metro areas
Where Coeur d'Alene ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- TransitBetter than only 13% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than only 18% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than only 34% of metro areas
- Low vacancyBetter than only 44% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Coeur d'Alene
A household needs to earn about $135,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Coeur d'Alene home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $86,422, 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 Coeur d'Alene's effective rate of 0.42%, 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 Coeur d'Alene
Coeur d'Alene runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Coeur d'Alene.
Who works in Coeur d'Alene, and how
Work in Coeur d'Alene centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 80%
- Work from home 15%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Coeur d'Alene
Coeur d'Alene has more restaurants and bars per resident than 78% of metro areas and more late-night spots per resident than 90% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Coeur d'Alene and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Coeur d'Alene growing, and who is moving in?
Coeur d'Alene has grown about 28% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Spokane, WA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Coeur d'Alene go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Coeur d'Alene, month by month
Coeur d'Alene sees roughly 100 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 36, with lows near 24. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 36° | 30° | 24° |
| April | 59° | 46° | 34° |
| July | 88° | 72° | 53° |
| October | 60° | 47° | 36° |
Flying in and out of Coeur d'Alene
The nearest airport, Spokane International, is about 35 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Seattle-Tacoma International, about 258 miles away.
The best schools in and around Coeur d'Alene
Schools across Coeur d'Alene average a B, better than 77% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Sorensen Magnet School Of The Arts And HumanitiesA+ · 75% proficient
- Hayden Meadows Elementary SchoolA · 71% proficient
- Dalton Elementary SchoolA · 70% proficient
Top middle schools
- Canfield Middle SchoolA · 62% proficient
- Post Falls Middle SchoolB+ · 51% proficient
- Woodland Middle SchoolB · 47% proficient
Top high schools
- Coeur D'alene Charter Academy SchoolA+ · 86% proficient
- Coeur D'alene High SchoolA− · 64% proficient
- Kootenai Bridge AcademyB · 50% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Coeur d'Alene school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Coeur d'Alene 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 Coeur d'Alene against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Coeur d'Alene suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 15% already work from home.
Retirees
The weather beats 59% of metro areas and health care access beats 56%.
Common questions about living in Coeur d'Alene
Is Coeur d'Alene a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Coeur d'Alene ranks 16th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on low crime, low disaster risk, and state finances, and lowest on an overheated housing market and transit. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Coeur d'Alene expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $546,528. The overall cost of living runs about 6% below the national average. Set against a $86,422 median income, cost of living beats 62% of metro areas.
Is Coeur d'Alene safe?
Yes, Coeur d'Alene is safer than 100% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $194 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Coeur d'Alene?
July highs average about 88 degrees, and January highs near 36 with lows near 24. That works out to about 100 pleasant days a year, more than 59% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Coeur d'Alene?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Hayden, Athol, and Downtown Coeur d'Alene. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Coeur d'Alene good for families?
Schools beat 77% of metro areas, crime safety beats 100%, and childcare runs $741 a month.
Is Coeur d'Alene good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 62% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 95% of metro areas. About 15% of workers already work from home.
Compare Coeur d'Alene with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Coeur d'Alene. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Coeur d'Alene 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.
Coeur d'Alene detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Coeur d'Alene: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Coeur d'Alene: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Coeur d'Alene: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Coeur d'Alene: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Coeur d'Alene 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.