Best PlacesCounselor, NM Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Counselor, 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.
Counselor ranks 50,237th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low property taxes by a wide margin, and a weak job market ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Counselor
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.
Counselor's strengths and weaknesses
Where Counselor ranks high
- Low property taxBetter than 99% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 99% of towns
- QuietBetter than 97% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 95% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 141 pleasant days a year, better than 90% of towns
Where Counselor ranks low
- Local economyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 1% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 1% of towns
- Short commute52.0 minutes each way, better than only 1% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Counselor
A household needs to earn about $9,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Counselor home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $25,289, 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 a national 0.90% effective rate, since no local rate is published, 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 2 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Counselor
Counselor 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 Counselor.
Who works in Counselor, and how
Work in Counselor centers on health care & social and other services. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 60%
- Work from home 37%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Counselor
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Counselor.
What the weather is like in Counselor, month by month
Counselor sees roughly 141 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 76 degrees. January highs sit near 36, with lows near 10. The comfortable stretch runs June through August.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 36° | 23° | 10° |
| April | 56° | 41° | 27° |
| July | 76° | 61° | 46° |
| October | 59° | 44° | 28° |
Flying in and out of Counselor
The nearest airport, Durango-La Plata County, is about 72 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Albuquerque International Sunport, about 90 miles away.
Counselor 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 Counselor against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Counselor
Is Counselor a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Counselor ranks 50,237th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low property taxes, low disaster risk, and quiet, and lowest on a weak job market 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 Counselor expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $35,632. The overall cost of living runs about 17% below the national average. Set against a $25,289 median income, cost of living beats 3% of towns.
Is Counselor safe?
Counselor is safer than 1% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $1,345 per resident a year.
Compare Counselor with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Counselor. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Counselor 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.
Counselor detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Counselor: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Counselor: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Counselor: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Counselor: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Counselor 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.