Best PlacesMalabar, FL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Malabar, 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.
Malabar ranks 4,997th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on state infrastructure by a wide margin, and disaster risk is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Malabar
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.
Malabar's strengths and weaknesses
Where Malabar ranks high
- State infrastructureBetter than 99% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 98% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 96% of towns
- School gradeA−, better than 95% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 94% of towns
Where Malabar ranks low
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 2% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 2% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 6% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 9% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 20% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Malabar
A household needs to earn about $120,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Malabar home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $119,367; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Malabar's effective rate of 0.64%, 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 Malabar
Malabar runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Malabar.
Who works in Malabar, and how
Work in Malabar centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 82%
- Work from home 15%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Malabar
The coast is about 15 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Malabar, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Malabar, month by month
Malabar sees roughly 123 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 74, with lows near 51. The comfortable stretch runs November through April.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 74° | 62° | 51° |
| April | 84° | 74° | 64° |
| July | 92° | 83° | 75° |
| October | 86° | 78° | 70° |
Flying in and out of Malabar
The nearest airport, Melbourne Orlando International, is about 8 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Orlando International, about 53 miles away.
The best schools in and around Malabar
Schools across Malabar average an A−, better than 95% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Freedom 7 Elementary School Of International StudiesA+ · 88% proficient
- W. Melbourne Elementary School For ScienceA+ · 85% proficient
Top middle schools
- Stone Magnet Middle SchoolC · 32% proficient
Top high schools
- West Shore Junior/senior High SchoolA+ · 93% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Malabar school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Malabar 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 Malabar against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Malabar
Is Malabar a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Malabar ranks 4,997th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on state infrastructure, a strong job market, and low taxes, and lowest on disaster risk and summer heat. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Malabar expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $471,372. The overall cost of living runs about 4% below the national average. Set against a $119,367 median income, cost of living beats 94% of towns.
Is Malabar safe?
Yes, Malabar is safer than 82% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $134 per resident a year.
Compare Malabar with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Malabar. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Malabar 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.
Malabar detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Malabar: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Malabar: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Malabar: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Malabar: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Malabar 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.