Best PlacesHighland View, FL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Highland View, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Highland View ranks 26,484th 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 Highland View
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.
Highland View's strengths and weaknesses
Where Highland View ranks high
- State infrastructureBetter than 99% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 98% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 98% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 96% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 92% of towns
Where Highland View ranks low
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 2% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 2% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 4% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 8% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 9% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Highland View
A household needs to earn about $129,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Highland View home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $87,423, 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 Highland View'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 Highland View
Highland View 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 Highland View.
Who works in Highland View, and how
Work in Highland View centers on hospitality & food and professional & technical. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 76%
- Work from home 21%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Highland View
The coast is about 1 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Highland View, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Highland View, month by month
Highland View sees roughly 121 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 91 degrees. January highs sit near 67, with lows near 43. The comfortable stretch runs February through April and October through December.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 67° | 54° | 43° |
| April | 79° | 69° | 57° |
| July | 91° | 83° | 75° |
| October | 83° | 73° | 63° |
Flying in and out of Highland View
The nearest airport, Northwest Florida Beaches International, is about 48 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Tampa International, about 212 miles away.
The best schools in and around Highland View
Schools across Highland View average a B, better than 68% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Port St. Joe Elementary SchoolB+ · 52% proficient
Top high schools
- Port St. Joe High SchoolB− · 44% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Highland View school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Highland View 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 Highland View against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Highland View
Is Highland View a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Highland View ranks 26,484th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on state infrastructure, a strong job market, and civic engagement, and lowest on disaster risk and summer heat. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Highland View expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $508,859. The overall cost of living runs about 8% above the national average. Set against a $87,423 median income, cost of living beats 65% of towns.
Is Highland View safe?
Highland View is safer than 29% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $283 per resident a year.
Compare Highland View with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Highland View. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Highland View 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.
Highland View detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Highland View: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Highland View: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Highland View: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Highland View: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Highland View 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.