Best PlacesDelray Beach, FL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Delray Beach, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Distance to the water drives a lot of the difference between one part and the next. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Delray Beach ranks 257th of 445 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 6 minutes away. Its strengths are health care access and state infrastructure. The cost shows up in empty homes, summer heat, and disaster risk.
The best neighborhoods in Delray Beach
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 Delray Beach
The parts of Delray Beach, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the city.
Pine Trail, Chatelaine & Sabal Lakes
Fewer homes sit empty, local pay stretches further, and incomes run higher.
Palm Greens at Villa del Ray & Polo Trace
Fewer households have young kids and streets are more car-dependent.
Gleneagles, Kings Point Flanders & Addison Reserve
More adults hold degrees and crime runs lower.
Northeastern Delray Beach
Homes cost more and prices have run up more.
Emerald Pointe & Huntington Pointe North
More residents vote.
Old School Square
Biking is better, though it is noisier.
Southeastern Delray Beach
Transit reaches more jobs.
Village at Delray, Delray Beach Highlands & Hammock Reserve
Health care is harder to reach.
Allamanda Gardens
Schools score lower.
Delray Beach shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 9% of the country and others in the top 8%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Delray Beach's strengths and weaknesses
Delray Beach lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Health care access is the standout, in the top 2% of cities. State infrastructure and low taxes follow.
The one real hole is empty homes, near the bottom of the country. Summer heat and disaster risk also cost it ground. The detail is below, and the map is where it turns into a choice of neighborhood rather than just a place.
Where Delray Beach ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 98% of cities
- State infrastructureBetter than 95% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 95% of cities
- Air qualityBetter than 90% of cities
- Local economyBetter than 89% of cities
Where Delray Beach ranks low
- Low vacancyBetter than only 2% of cities
- Heat safetyBetter than only 2% of cities
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 2% of cities
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 8% of cities
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 13% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Delray Beach
A household needs to earn about $133,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Delray Beach home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $96,684, 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 Delray Beach's effective rate of 0.79%, 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 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Delray Beach
Delray Beach runs older than the country, 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 Delray Beach.
Who works in Delray Beach, and how
Work in Delray Beach centers on health care & social and professional & technical. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 70%
- Work from home 23%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Delray Beach
Delray Beach has more restaurants and bars per resident than 83% of cities and more parkland per resident than 82% of cities. The coast is about 6 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Delray Beach and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Delray Beach, month by month
Delray Beach sees roughly 87 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 76, with lows near 62. The comfortable stretch runs December through March.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 76° | 70° | 62° |
| April | 84° | 78° | 71° |
| July | 92° | 86° | 79° |
| October | 86° | 81° | 76° |
Flying in and out of Delray Beach
Palm Beach International sits about 16 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 4.3 million passengers in 2025, with 67 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Delray Beach
Schools across Delray Beach average a B, better than 73% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Morikami Park Elementary SchoolA+ · 89% proficient
- Calusa Elementary SchoolA+ · 81% proficient
- Sunrise Park Elementary SchoolA+ · 74% proficient
Top middle schools
- Omni Middle SchoolA · 64% proficient
- Eagles Landing Middle SchoolA · 64% proficient
- Boca Raton Community Middle SchoolA · 59% proficient
Top high schools
- Spanish River Community High SchoolA · 72% proficient
- Boca Raton Community High SchoolA− · 64% proficient
- Olympic Heights Community HighA− · 62% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Delray Beach school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Delray Beach 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 Delray Beach against the other 444 cities.
Who Delray Beach suits
Common questions about living in Delray Beach
Is Delray Beach a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Delray Beach ranks 257th of 445 cities. It scores highest on health care access, state infrastructure, and low taxes, and lowest on empty homes and summer heat. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Delray Beach expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $509,945. The overall cost of living runs about 7% above the national average. Set against a $96,684 median income, cost of living beats 67% of cities.
Is Delray Beach safe?
Yes, Delray Beach is safer than 60% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $241 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Delray Beach?
July highs average about 92 degrees, and January highs near 76 with lows near 62. That works out to about 87 pleasant days a year, more than 38% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Delray Beach?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Pine Trail, Chatelaine & Sabal Lakes, Palm Greens at Villa del Ray & Polo Trace, and Gleneagles, Kings Point Flanders & Addison Reserve. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Delray Beach good for families?
Schools beat 73% of cities, crime safety beats 60%, and childcare runs $1,238 a month.
Is Delray Beach good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 67% of cities, though advertised internet speeds beat only 35% of cities. About 23% of workers already work from home.
Compare Delray Beach with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Delray Beach. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Delray Beach 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.
Delray Beach detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Delray Beach: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Delray Beach: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Delray Beach: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Delray Beach: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Delray Beach 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.