Best PlacesCrystal, ID Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Crystal, 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.
Crystal ranks 25,211th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cheap car insurance by a wide margin, and tree cover ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Crystal
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.
Crystal's strengths and weaknesses
Where Crystal ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 98% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than 98% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 139 pleasant days a year, better than 89% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 85% of towns
- Cheap childcare$563 a month, better than 85% of towns
Where Crystal ranks low
- Tree shadeBetter than only 4% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 12% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 17% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 18% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Crystal
A household needs to earn about $103,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Crystal home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $81,067, 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 Crystal'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 Crystal
Crystal runs older 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 Crystal.
Who works in Crystal, and how
Work in Crystal centers on manufacturing and education. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 81%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Crystal
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Crystal.
What the weather is like in Crystal, month by month
Crystal sees roughly 139 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 98 degrees. January highs sit near 41, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 41° | 31° | 23° |
| April | 68° | 53° | 37° |
| July | 98° | 81° | 62° |
| October | 68° | 52° | 37° |
Flying in and out of Crystal
Boise Air Trml/Gowen Field sits about 52 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 2.6 million passengers in 2025, with 59 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Crystal
Schools across Crystal average a C−, better than 28% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Pioneer Primary SchoolC · 33% proficient
- Payette Primary SchoolC− · 30% proficient
- Westside Elementary SchoolD+ · 21% proficient
Top middle schools
- Weiser Middle SchoolC+ · 36% proficient
Top high schools
- Weiser High SchoolB− · 43% proficient
- Payette High SchoolD · 23% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Crystal school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Crystal 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 Crystal against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Crystal
Is Crystal a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Crystal ranks 25,211th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, state finances, and the weather, and lowest on tree cover and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Crystal expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $415,971. The overall cost of living runs about 11% below the national average. Set against a $81,067 median income, cost of living beats 62% of towns.
Is Crystal safe?
Crystal is safer than 27% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $487 per resident a year.
Compare Crystal with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Crystal. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Crystal 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.
Crystal detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Crystal: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Crystal: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Crystal: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Crystal: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Crystal 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.