Best PlacesLas Cruces, NM Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Las Cruces metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by AllenS, via commons
Las Cruces ranks 310th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on low incomes and tree cover. It does better on the weather, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Las Cruces metro
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.
The best areas in Las Cruces
The towns and districts of the Las Cruces metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Downtown Las Cruces
Biking is better, streets are more walkable, and commutes are shorter.
Hatch
Fewer adults hold degrees and fewer households have young kids.
Anthony, Sunland Park & Santa Teresa
Health care is harder to reach and fewer residents vote.
Las Cruces shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 3% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Las Cruces' strengths and weaknesses
Las Cruces ranks near the bottom because several of the basics fall short at once. The weather, low disaster risk, and cell coverage carry most of that.
The weak spots are broad rather than narrow: low incomes, tree cover, and thin health care access all drag on the score. Those are area averages, and the map below shows which parts run well above them.
Where Las Cruces ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 172 pleasant days a year, better than 94% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than 92% of metro areas
- Cell coverageBetter than 91% of metro areas
- Local economyBetter than 76% of metro areas
- Low property taxBetter than 73% of metro areas
Where Las Cruces ranks low
- Household income$60,551 median, better than only 3% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than only 3% of metro areas
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 4% of metro areas
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 6% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than only 9% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Las Cruces
A household needs to earn about $59,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Las Cruces home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $60,551, 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 Las Cruces' effective rate of 0.64%, 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 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Las Cruces
Las Cruces runs younger 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 health care & social and education. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Las Cruces
Las Cruces has more restaurants and bars per resident than 99% of metro areas and less parkland per resident than most metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Las Cruces and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Las Cruces growing, and who is moving in?
Las Cruces has grown about 7% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Albuquerque, NM.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Las Cruces go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Las Cruces, month by month
Las Cruces sees roughly 172 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 98 degrees. January highs sit near 58, with lows near 31. The comfortable stretch runs March through May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 58° | 43° | 31° |
| April | 81° | 65° | 48° |
| July | 98° | 83° | 70° |
| October | 80° | 64° | 50° |
Flying in and out of Las Cruces
The nearest airport, El Paso International, is about 43 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Albuquerque International Sunport, about 187 miles away.
The best schools in and around Las Cruces
Schools across Las Cruces average a C, better than 46% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Tularosa IntermediateC− · 28% proficient
Top middle schools
- Tularosa MiddleC− · 28% proficient
- Gadsden MiddleF · 10% proficient
Top high schools
- Centennial High SchoolB+ · 55% proficient
- Alma D'arte CharterB · 50% proficient
- Organ Mountain High SchoolB− · 45% 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 386 metro areas.
Who Las Cruces suits
Common questions about living in Las Cruces
Is Las Cruces a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Las Cruces ranks 310th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on the weather, low disaster risk, and cell coverage, and lowest on low incomes and tree cover. 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 $230,160. The overall cost of living runs about 17% below the national average. Set against a $60,551 median income, cost of living beats 6% of metro areas.
Is Las Cruces safe?
Las Cruces is safer than 9% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $667 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Las Cruces?
July highs average about 98 degrees, and January highs near 58 with lows near 31. That works out to about 172 pleasant days a year, more than 94% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Las Cruces?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Downtown Las Cruces, Hatch, and Anthony, Sunland Park & Santa Teresa. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Las Cruces good for families?
Schools beat 46% of metro areas, crime safety beats 9%, and childcare runs $742 a month.
Is Las Cruces good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 6% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 9% of metro areas. About 11% of workers already work from home.
Compare Las Cruces with other metro areas
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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.