Best PlacesGrants Pass, OR Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Grants Pass 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 Joseph Novak from Canton, Mich., USA, CC BY 2.0, via wiki
Grants Pass ranks 239th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on the cost of living against local pay and distance from a big city. It does better on low crime, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Grants Pass 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 Grants Pass
The towns and districts of the Grants Pass 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.
Downtown Grants Pass
Biking is better, more households have young kids, and crime runs lower.
Merlin
Tree cover is thicker and it is quieter.
Cave Junction
More homes sit empty and incomes run lower.
Scores across Grants Pass run from about the 1st to the 85th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Grants Pass' strengths and weaknesses
Grants Pass lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Low crime, state infrastructure, and quiet carry most of that.
The one real hole is the cost of living against local pay, near the bottom of the country. Distance from a big city and health outcomes also cost it ground. Cost swings more from one part of Grants Pass to another than it does between Grants Pass and its neighbors, which the map below shows.
Where Grants Pass ranks high
- Crime safetyBetter than 94% of metro areas
- State infrastructureBetter than 92% of metro areas
- QuietBetter than 89% of metro areas
- Voter turnoutBetter than 87% of metro areas
- Low property taxBetter than 84% of metro areas
Where Grants Pass ranks low
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than only 8% of metro areas
- Health outlookBetter than only 8% of metro areas
- Local economyBetter than only 8% of metro areas
- Household income$64,589 median, better than only 9% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Grants Pass
A household needs to earn about $104,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Grants Pass home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $64,589, 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 Grants Pass' effective rate of 0.54%, 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 Grants Pass
Grants Pass 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 Grants Pass.
Who works in Grants Pass, and how
Work in Grants Pass centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 83%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Grants Pass
Grants Pass has less parkland per resident than most metro areas and more late-night spots per resident than 79% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Grants Pass and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Grants Pass growing, and who is moving in?
Grants Pass has grown about 6% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Medford, OR.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Grants Pass go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Grants Pass, month by month
Grants Pass sees roughly 126 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 80 degrees. January highs sit near 44, with lows near 32. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 44° | 37° | 32° |
| April | 56° | 44° | 36° |
| July | 80° | 65° | 54° |
| October | 61° | 51° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Grants Pass
The nearest airport, Rogue Valley International/Medford, is about 24 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Portland International, about 221 miles away.
The best schools in and around Grants Pass
Schools across Grants Pass average a B−, better than 58% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Williams Elementary SchoolB− · 42% proficient
- Fruitdale Elementary SchoolB− · 40% proficient
- Manzanita Elementary SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
Top middle schools
- North Middle SchoolA+ · 75% proficient
- South Middle SchoolA+ · 75% proficient
- Lincoln Savage Middle SchoolC− · 30% proficient
Top high schools
- New Bridge High SchoolB · 50% proficient
- North Valley High SchoolB− · 41% proficient
- Hidden Valley High SchoolC · 33% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Grants Pass school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Grants Pass 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 Grants Pass against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Grants Pass suits
Retirees
The weather beats 76% of metro areas and it is quieter than 89%.
Common questions about living in Grants Pass
Is Grants Pass a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Grants Pass ranks 239th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on low crime, state infrastructure, and quiet, and lowest on the cost of living against local pay and distance from a big city. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Grants Pass expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $411,613. The overall cost of living runs about 3% above the national average. Set against a $64,589 median income, cost of living beats 0% of metro areas.
Is Grants Pass safe?
Yes, Grants Pass is safer than 94% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $283 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Grants Pass?
July highs average about 80 degrees, and January highs near 44 with lows near 32. That works out to about 126 pleasant days a year, more than 76% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Grants Pass?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Downtown Grants Pass, Merlin, and Cave Junction. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Grants Pass good for families?
Schools beat 58% of metro areas, crime safety beats 94%, and childcare runs $1,109 a month.
Is Grants Pass good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 0% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 32% of metro areas. About 12% of workers already work from home.
Compare Grants Pass with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Grants Pass. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Grants Pass 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.
Grants Pass detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Grants Pass: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Grants Pass: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Grants Pass: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Grants Pass: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Grants Pass 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.