Best PlacesLos Alamos, NM Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Los Alamos, 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.
Los Alamos ranks 114th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on population health by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Los Alamos
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.
Los Alamos' strengths and weaknesses
Where Los Alamos ranks high
- Health outlookBetter than 99% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 99% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 99% of towns
- BikingBetter than 99% of towns
- Short commute12.3 minutes each way, better than 99% of towns
Where Los Alamos ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,491 a month, better than only 4% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 5% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 31% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 33% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 36% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Los Alamos
A household needs to earn about $125,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Los Alamos home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $145,766, 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 Los Alamos' effective rate of 0.58%, 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 Los Alamos
Los Alamos's age mix sits close to the national median, 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 Los Alamos.
Who works in Los Alamos, and how
Work in Los Alamos centers on professional & technical and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 76%
- Work from home 17%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Los Alamos
Los Alamos has more restaurants and bars per resident than 70% of towns and more parkland per resident than 88% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Los Alamos and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Los Alamos, month by month
Los Alamos sees roughly 151 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 40, with lows near 24. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 40° | 31° | 24° |
| April | 64° | 51° | 41° |
| July | 85° | 72° | 62° |
| October | 65° | 53° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Los Alamos
The nearest airport, Santa Fe Regional, is about 22 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Albuquerque International Sunport, about 61 miles away.
The best schools in and around Los Alamos
Schools across Los Alamos average an A−, better than 78% of towns.
Top high schools
- Los Alamos HighA · 70% proficient
- Pojoaque HighB · 50% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Los Alamos school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Los Alamos 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 Los Alamos against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Los Alamos
Is Los Alamos a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Los Alamos ranks 114th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on population health, heat safety, and an educated workforce, and lowest on childcare costs and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Los Alamos expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $492,793. The overall cost of living runs about 2% below the national average. Set against a $145,766 median income, cost of living beats 98% of towns.
Is Los Alamos safe?
Los Alamos is safer than 38% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $466 per resident a year.
Compare Los Alamos with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Los Alamos. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Los Alamos 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.
Los Alamos detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Los Alamos: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Los Alamos: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Los Alamos: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Los Alamos: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Los Alamos 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.