Best PlacesHarold, FL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Harold, 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.
Harold ranks 3,151st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on state infrastructure by a wide margin, and disaster risk is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Harold
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.
Harold's strengths and weaknesses
Where Harold ranks high
- State infrastructureBetter than 99% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 96% of towns
- School gradeA, better than 95% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 94% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 94% of towns
Where Harold ranks low
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 3% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 6% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 7% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 14% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 17% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Harold
A household needs to earn about $115,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Harold home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $122,318, 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 Harold's effective rate of 0.65%, 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 6 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Harold
Harold runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Harold.
Who works in Harold, and how
Work in Harold centers on hospitality & food and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 77%
- Work from home 21%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Harold
Harold has more parkland per resident than 91% of towns. The coast is about 12 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Harold and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Harold, month by month
Harold sees roughly 139 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 91 degrees. January highs sit near 63, with lows near 45. The comfortable stretch runs February through April and October through December.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 63° | 53° | 45° |
| April | 78° | 69° | 61° |
| July | 91° | 83° | 77° |
| October | 82° | 73° | 64° |
Flying in and out of Harold
The nearest airport, Pensacola International, is about 10 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Louis Armstrong New Orleans International, about 194 miles away.
The best schools in and around Harold
Schools across Harold average an A, better than 95% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Gulf Breeze Elementary SchoolA+ · 84% proficient
- A. K. Suter Elementary SchoolA+ · 74% proficient
- West Navarre Intermediate SchoolA · 70% proficient
Top middle schools
- Gulf Breeze Middle SchoolA+ · 78% proficient
- Woodlawn Beach Middle SchoolA · 64% proficient
- Hobbs Middle SchoolB+ · 48% proficient
Top high schools
- Gulf Breeze High SchoolA · 74% proficient
- Pensacola High SchoolB · 47% proficient
- Santa Rosa Adult SchoolD · 20% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Harold school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Harold 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 Harold against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Harold
Is Harold a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Harold ranks 3,151st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on state infrastructure, low taxes, and good schools, and lowest on disaster risk and car insurance costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Harold expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $450,642. The overall cost of living runs about 3% below the national average. Set against a $122,318 median income, cost of living beats 94% of towns.
Is Harold safe?
Yes, Harold is safer than 84% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $131 per resident a year.
Compare Harold with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Harold. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Harold 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.
Harold detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Harold: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Harold: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Harold: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Harold: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Harold 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.