Best PlacesHailey, ID Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Hailey, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Hailey ranks 2,438th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on biking by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Hailey
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.
Hailey's strengths and weaknesses
Where Hailey ranks high
- BikingBetter than 99% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than 98% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 98% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 97% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 95% of towns
Where Hailey ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 4% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 6% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 19% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 24% of towns
- Cheap childcare$974 a month, better than only 26% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Hailey
A household needs to earn about $201,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Hailey home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $105,883, 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 Hailey's effective rate of 0.35%, 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 Hailey
Hailey runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Hailey.
Who works in Hailey, and how
Work in Hailey centers on construction and hospitality & food. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 77%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 11%
Life in Hailey
Hailey has more restaurants and bars per resident than 76% of towns and more parkland per resident than 91% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Hailey and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Hailey, month by month
Hailey sees roughly 126 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 31, with lows near 16. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 31° | 23° | 16° |
| April | 55° | 43° | 33° |
| July | 86° | 70° | 54° |
| October | 58° | 45° | 35° |
Flying in and out of Hailey
The nearest airport, Friedman Memorial, is about 2 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Boise Air Trml/Gowen Field, about 96 miles away.
The best schools in and around Hailey
Schools across Hailey average a B−, better than 55% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Syringa Mountain Charter SchoolA− · 60% proficient
- Ernest Hemingway Steam SchoolA− · 59% proficient
- Hailey Elementary SchoolC · 35% proficient
Top middle schools
- Wood River Middle SchoolB · 43% proficient
Top high schools
- Wood River High SchoolB− · 41% proficient
- Silver Creek High SchoolD+ · 25% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Hailey school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Hailey 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 Hailey against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Hailey
Is Hailey a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Hailey ranks 2,438th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on biking, state finances, and heat safety, and lowest on an overheated housing market 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 Hailey expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $821,034. The overall cost of living runs about 8% below the national average. Set against a $105,883 median income, cost of living beats 90% of towns.
Is Hailey safe?
Hailey is safer than 41% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $372 per resident a year.
Compare Hailey with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Hailey. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Hailey 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.
Hailey detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Hailey: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Hailey: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Hailey: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Hailey: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Hailey 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.