Best PlacesDavenport, IA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Davenport metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Quadcities2012, CC BY-SA 3.0, via commons
Davenport ranks 177th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on property taxes and a weak job market. It does better on a stable housing market, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Davenport 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 Davenport
The towns and districts of the Davenport 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.
Bettendorf
Schools score higher, more adults hold degrees, and crime runs lower.
Le Claire, Port Byron & Hampton
Incomes run higher, though biking is worse.
Downtown Davenport
It is noisier and tree cover is thinner.
Milan & Coal Valley
Local pay stretches further, though transit reaches fewer jobs.
Aledo & Taylor Ridge
More residents vote, though streets are more car-dependent.
Moline & Rock Island
Homes cost less, though health care is harder to reach.
East Moline, Silvis & Colona
Disaster risk is higher.
Blue Grass
Health outcomes score lower and more homes sit empty.
Kewanee
Fewer households have young kids and advertised internet is slower.
Davenport shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 2% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Davenport's strengths and weaknesses
Davenport lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. A stable housing market is the standout, in the top 1% of metro areas. Transit and low disaster risk follow.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Property taxes, a weak job market, and taxes hold the score down. Cost swings more from one part of Davenport to another than it does between Davenport and its neighbors, which the map below shows.
Where Davenport ranks high
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 99% of metro areas
- TransitBetter than 86% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than 85% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than 83% of metro areas
- Short commute20.6 minutes each way, better than 79% of metro areas
Where Davenport ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 5% of metro areas
- Local economyBetter than only 13% of metro areas
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 24% of metro areas
- QuietBetter than only 29% of metro areas
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 31% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Davenport
A household needs to earn about $58,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Davenport home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $79,507, 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 Davenport's effective rate of 1.78%, 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 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Davenport
Davenport's age mix sits close to the national median, 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 Davenport.
Who works in Davenport, and how
Work in Davenport centers on manufacturing and health care & social. 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 Davenport
Davenport has more restaurants and bars per resident than 92% of metro areas and more parkland per resident than 95% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Davenport and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Davenport growing, and who is moving in?
Davenport has lost about 1% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Chicago, IL.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Davenport go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Davenport, month by month
Davenport sees roughly 77 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 32, with lows near 17. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 32° | 24° | 17° |
| April | 62° | 50° | 40° |
| July | 84° | 74° | 65° |
| October | 66° | 54° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Davenport
The nearest airport, Quad Cities International, is about 8 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Chicago O'Hare International, about 141 miles away.
The best schools in and around Davenport
Schools across Davenport average a C, better than 36% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Cody Elementary SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
- Paul Norton Elementary SchoolA+ · 82% proficient
- Alan Shepard Elementary SchoolA+ · 76% proficient
Top middle schools
- Pleasant Valley Junior High SchoolA+ · 86% proficient
- North Scott Junior High SchoolA+ · 79% proficient
- Bettendorf Middle SchoolA+ · 72% proficient
Top high schools
- Pleasant Valley High SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
- North Scott High SchoolA+ · 81% proficient
- Bettendorf High SchoolA · 73% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Davenport school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Davenport 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 Davenport against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Davenport suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 71% of metro areas, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 10% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Davenport
Is Davenport a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Davenport ranks 177th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on a stable housing market, transit, and low disaster risk, and lowest on property taxes and a weak job market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Davenport expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $194,578. The overall cost of living runs about 15% below the national average. Set against a $79,507 median income, cost of living beats 71% of metro areas.
Is Davenport safe?
Davenport is safer than 45% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $305 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Davenport?
July highs average about 84 degrees, and January highs near 32 with lows near 17. That works out to about 77 pleasant days a year, more than 36% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Davenport?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Bettendorf, Le Claire, Port Byron & Hampton, and Downtown Davenport. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Davenport good for families?
Schools beat 36% of metro areas, crime safety beats 45%, and childcare runs $901 a month.
Is Davenport good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 71% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 83% of metro areas. About 10% of workers already work from home.
Compare Davenport with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Davenport. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Davenport 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.
Davenport detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Davenport: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Davenport: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Davenport: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Davenport: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Davenport 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.