Best PlacesLas Cruces, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Las Cruces, 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.
Las Cruces ranks 33,559th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on the weather by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Las Cruces
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.
Las Cruces' strengths and weaknesses
Where Las Cruces ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 188 pleasant days a year, better than 99% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 96% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 93% of towns
- Short commute20.3 minutes each way, better than 87% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 86% of towns
Where Las Cruces ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,613 a month, better than only 2% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 2% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 3% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 6% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Las Cruces
A household needs to earn about $391,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Las Cruces home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $80,171, 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 Las Cruces' effective rate of 0.48%, 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 Las Cruces
Las Cruces runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Las Cruces.
Who works in Las Cruces, and how
Work in Las Cruces centers on agriculture & forestry and wholesale trade. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 63%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 26%
Life in Las Cruces
The coast is about 6 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Las Cruces, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Las Cruces, month by month
Las Cruces sees roughly 188 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 65, with lows near 39. The comfortable stretch runs April through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 65° | 50° | 39° |
| April | 72° | 56° | 45° |
| July | 87° | 67° | 54° |
| October | 81° | 61° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Las Cruces
The nearest airport, Santa Barbara Municipal, is about 25 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Bob Hope, about 111 miles away.
The best schools in and around Las Cruces
Schools across Las Cruces average a B−, better than 61% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Vista De Las CrucesA+ · 75% proficient
- Solvang ElementaryB+ · 55% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Las Cruces school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Las Cruces 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 Las Cruces against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Las Cruces
Is Las Cruces a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Las Cruces ranks 33,559th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on the weather, clean air, and population health, and lowest on childcare costs and civic engagement. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Las Cruces expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,561,476. The overall cost of living runs about 28% above the national average. Set against a $80,171 median income, cost of living beats 21% of towns.
Is Las Cruces safe?
Las Cruces is safer than 6% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $673 per resident a year.
Compare Las Cruces with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Las Cruces. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Las Cruces 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.
Las Cruces detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Las Cruces: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Las Cruces: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Las Cruces: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Las Cruces: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Las Cruces 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.