Best PlacesLos Chaves, NM Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Los Chaves, 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 Chaves ranks 12,769th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cell coverage by a wide margin, and tree cover ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Los Chaves
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 Chaves' strengths and weaknesses
Where Los Chaves ranks high
- Cell coverageBetter than 98% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 167 pleasant days a year, better than 96% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 96% of towns
- Household income$117,781 median, better than 92% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 89% of towns
Where Los Chaves ranks low
- Tree shadeBetter than only 2% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 11% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 11% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 12% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 13% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Los Chaves
A household needs to earn about $66,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Los Chaves home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $117,781, 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 Chaves' effective rate of 0.53%, 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 Chaves
Los Chaves runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Los Chaves.
Who works in Los Chaves, and how
Work in Los Chaves centers on health care & social and construction. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 90%
- Work from home 7%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Los Chaves
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Los Chaves.
What the weather is like in Los Chaves, month by month
Los Chaves sees roughly 167 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 95 degrees. January highs sit near 51, with lows near 22. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 51° | 35° | 22° |
| April | 76° | 59° | 41° |
| July | 95° | 80° | 65° |
| October | 74° | 58° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Los Chaves
Albuquerque International Sunport sits about 23 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 2.6 million passengers in 2025, with 69 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Los Chaves
Schools across Los Chaves average a D+, better than 20% of towns.
Top high schools
- Los Lunas HighC+ · 40% proficient
- Belen HighC · 31% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Los Chaves school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Los Chaves 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 Chaves against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Los Chaves
Is Los Chaves a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Los Chaves ranks 12,769th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cell coverage, the weather, and what local pay buys, and lowest on tree cover and an overheated housing market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Los Chaves expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $261,397. The overall cost of living runs about 13% below the national average. Set against a $117,781 median income, cost of living beats 96% of towns.
Is Los Chaves safe?
Los Chaves is safer than 21% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $574 per resident a year.
Compare Los Chaves with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Los Chaves. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Los Chaves 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 Chaves detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Los Chaves: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Los Chaves: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Los Chaves: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Los Chaves: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Los Chaves 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.