Best PlacesHuntsville, AR Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Huntsville, 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.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Huntsville ranks 34,162nd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low property taxes by a wide margin, and thin health care access ranks lowest.

#34,162
of 50,333 towns
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 50,333 towns
Your rank
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The best neighborhoods in Huntsville

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Huntsville area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

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.

Huntsville's strengths and weaknesses

Top 10%Low property taxes
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Huntsville with other towns.

Where Huntsville ranks high

  • Low property taxBetter than 91% of towns
  • State fiscal healthBetter than 85% of towns
  • WalkabilityBetter than 82% of towns
  • BikingBetter than 74% of towns
  • Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 72% of towns

Where Huntsville ranks low

  • Healthcare accessBetter than only 12% of towns
  • Educational attainmentBetter than only 14% of towns
  • Health outlookBetter than only 15% of towns
  • Voter turnoutBetter than only 18% of towns
  • Disaster safetyBetter than only 22% of towns

What it costs to buy a home in Huntsville

A household needs to earn about $49,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Huntsville home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $63,055, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$49,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$1,132
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $197,329 home
Median rent
$893
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$1,006
Property tax$61
Homeowners insurance$66

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 Huntsville's effective rate of 0.37%, 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 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Huntsville

Huntsville runs younger than the country, and households here run larger than average.

Median age
37
younger than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
18%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.8
above the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1827%
18 to 3420%
35 to 4917%
50 to 6417%
65 and older18%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Huntsville.


Who works in Huntsville, and how

Work in Huntsville centers on manufacturing and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
9%
below the national average
Unemployment
2.8%
below the national average
Job growth
+2.3%
/y 2019-2023, near the national pace

Largest industries

Manufacturing16%
Retail trade14%
Construction12%
Health care & social12%
Education8%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 90%
  • Work from home 9%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 2%

Life in Huntsville

Huntsville has more restaurants and bars per resident than 80% of towns and more parkland per resident than 95% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Huntsville and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
29
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 53.9 per 10,000 residents, more than 80% of towns
Coffee shops
6
about 11.1 per 10,000 residents, more than 90% of towns
Parkland
67 acres
about 12.4 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 95% of towns

What the weather is like in Huntsville, month by month

Huntsville sees roughly 73 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 48, with lows near 30. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, and October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January48°39°30°
April70°61°50°
July89°82°72°
October73°64°52°

Flying in and out of Huntsville

The nearest airport, Boone County, is about 34 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Memphis International, about 223 miles away.

Nearest airport
HRO
Boone County, about 34 miles
Airport size
Nonprimary
5 nonstop destinations
Average drive
48 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Huntsville

Schools across Huntsville average a C, better than 34% of towns.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Huntsville school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Huntsville 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 Huntsville against the other 50,332 towns.


Common questions about living in Huntsville

Is Huntsville a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Huntsville ranks 34,162nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low property taxes, state finances, and walkability, and lowest on thin health care access and education levels. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Huntsville expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $197,329. The overall cost of living runs about 18% below the national average. Set against a $63,055 median income, cost of living beats 38% of towns.

Is Huntsville safe?

Huntsville is safer than 42% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $485 per resident a year.


Compare Huntsville with other towns


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Huntsville. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Huntsville 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.

Huntsville detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Huntsville: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Huntsville: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Huntsville: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Huntsville: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Huntsville detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.