Best PlacesGuntersville, AL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Guntersville, 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.
Guntersville ranks 23,717th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low property taxes by a wide margin, and taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Guntersville
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.
Guntersville's strengths and weaknesses
Where Guntersville ranks high
- Low property taxBetter than 94% of towns
- Cheap childcare$533 a month, better than 89% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 89% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 84% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 82% of towns
Where Guntersville ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 11% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 28% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 32% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 32% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 33% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Guntersville
A household needs to earn about $67,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Guntersville home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $72,329, 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 Guntersville's effective rate of 0.30%, 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 Guntersville
Guntersville runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Guntersville.
Who works in Guntersville, and how
Work in Guntersville centers on manufacturing and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 92%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 1%
Life in Guntersville
Guntersville has more restaurants and bars per resident than 88% of towns and more parkland per resident than 87% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Guntersville and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Guntersville, month by month
Guntersville sees roughly 88 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 51, with lows near 35. The comfortable stretch runs March through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 51° | 42° | 35° |
| April | 72° | 61° | 51° |
| July | 88° | 78° | 70° |
| October | 74° | 63° | 54° |
Flying in and out of Guntersville
The nearest airport, Huntsville International-Carl T Jones Field, is about 33 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Hartsfield/Jackson Atlanta International, about 119 miles away.
The best schools in and around Guntersville
Schools across Guntersville average a C+, better than 41% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Arab Elementary SchoolA · 66% proficient
- Cherokee Elementary SchoolB− · 43% proficient
- West End Elementary SchoolB− · 40% proficient
Top middle schools
- Arab Junior High SchoolB+ · 50% proficient
- Guntersville Middle SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
- Kate Duncan Smith Dar MiddleC+ · 36% proficient
Top high schools
- Arab High SchoolB− · 45% proficient
- Kate D Smith Dar High SchoolC+ · 40% proficient
- Jb Pennington High SchoolC · 30% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Guntersville school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Guntersville 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 Guntersville against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Guntersville
Is Guntersville a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Guntersville ranks 23,717th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low property taxes, affordable childcare, and state infrastructure, and lowest on taxes 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 Guntersville expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $274,273. The overall cost of living runs about 18% below the national average. Set against a $72,329 median income, cost of living beats 64% of towns.
Is Guntersville safe?
Guntersville is safer than 32% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $350 per resident a year.
Compare Guntersville with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Guntersville. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Guntersville 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.
Guntersville detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Guntersville: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Guntersville: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Guntersville: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Guntersville: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Guntersville 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.