Best PlacesGarden City, ID Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Garden City, 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.
Garden City ranks 485th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on state finances by a wide margin, and distance from a big city ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Garden City
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.
Garden City's strengths and weaknesses
Where Garden City ranks high
- State fiscal healthBetter than 99% of cities
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 96% of cities
- Crime safetyBetter than 94% of cities
- BikingBetter than 92% of cities
- Low property taxBetter than 89% of cities
Where Garden City ranks low
- Big-city accessBetter than only 12% of cities
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 15% of cities
- Tree shadeBetter than only 15% of cities
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 25% of cities
- Air qualityBetter than only 28% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Garden City
A household needs to earn about $146,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Garden City home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $96,805, 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 Garden City's effective rate of 0.56%, 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 Garden City
Garden City 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 Garden City.
Who works in Garden City, and how
Work in Garden City 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 74%
- Work from home 20%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Garden City
Garden City has more restaurants and bars per resident than 82% of cities and more parkland per resident than 89% of cities. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Garden City and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Garden City, month by month
Garden City sees roughly 118 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 97 degrees. January highs sit near 42, with lows near 24. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 42° | 32° | 24° |
| April | 66° | 52° | 38° |
| July | 97° | 80° | 62° |
| October | 68° | 53° | 41° |
Flying in and out of Garden City
Boise Air Trml/Gowen Field sits about 8 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 Garden City
Schools across Garden City average a B, better than 68% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Highlands Elementary SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
- Hidden Springs Elementary SchoolA− · 60% proficient
- Rolling Hills Public CharterB · 50% proficient
Top middle schools
- Eagle Middle SchoolA · 66% proficient
- North Junior High SchoolA · 63% proficient
- Lowell Scott Middle SchoolA− · 54% proficient
Top high schools
- Boise Senior High SchoolA− · 67% proficient
- Eagle High SchoolA− · 65% proficient
- Centennial High SchoolA− · 65% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Garden City school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Garden City 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 Garden City against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Garden City suits
Retirees
The weather beats 69% of cities, health care access beats 74%, and it is quieter than 67%.
Common questions about living in Garden City
Is Garden City a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Garden City ranks 485th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on state finances, cheap car insurance, and low crime, and lowest on distance from a big city and an overheated housing market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Garden City expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $576,321. The overall cost of living runs about 3% below the national average. Set against a $96,805 median income, cost of living beats 61% of cities.
Is Garden City safe?
Yes, Garden City is safer than 94% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $217 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Garden City?
July highs average about 97 degrees, and January highs near 42 with lows near 24. That works out to about 118 pleasant days a year, more than 69% of cities.
Is Garden City good for families?
Schools beat 68% of cities, crime safety beats 94%, and childcare runs $974 a month.
Compare Garden City with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Garden City. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Garden City 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.
Garden City detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Garden City: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Garden City: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Garden City: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Garden City: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Garden City 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.