Best PlacesMead, CO Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Mead, 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.
Mead ranks 3,822nd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on few empty homes by a wide margin, and air quality ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Mead
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.
Mead's strengths and weaknesses
Where Mead ranks high
- Low vacancyBetter than 98% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 98% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 96% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 94% of towns
- Household income$118,766 median, better than 93% of towns
Where Mead ranks low
- Air qualityBetter than only 1% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 2% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,427 a month, better than only 5% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 7% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 14% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Mead
A household needs to earn about $160,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Mead home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $118,766, 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 Mead's effective rate of 0.56%, 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 Mead
Mead's age mix sits close to the national median, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Mead.
Who works in Mead, and how
Work in Mead centers on manufacturing and hospitality & food. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 80%
- Work from home 17%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Mead
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Mead.
What the weather is like in Mead, month by month
Mead sees roughly 142 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 94 degrees. January highs sit near 48, with lows near 18. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, August, and September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 48° | 31° | 18° |
| April | 68° | 50° | 35° |
| July | 94° | 76° | 59° |
| October | 71° | 52° | 37° |
Flying in and out of Mead
Denver International sits about 31 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 40.1 million passengers in 2025, with 250 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Mead
Schools across Mead average a C+, better than 50% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Ivy Stockwell Elementary SchoolB · 50% proficient
- Mead Elementary SchoolB− · 40% proficient
- Pioneer Ridge Elementary SchoolC · 33% proficient
Top middle schools
- Mead Middle SchoolB− · 39% proficient
- Turner Middle SchoolC+ · 37% proficient
- Milliken Middle SchoolD · 23% proficient
Top high schools
- Berthoud High SchoolB− · 42% proficient
- Mead High SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
- Roosevelt High SchoolC · 32% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Mead school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Mead 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 Mead against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Mead
Is Mead a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Mead ranks 3,822nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on few empty homes, a strong job market, and population health, and lowest on air quality and tree cover. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Mead expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $631,240. The overall cost of living runs about 0% below the national average. Set against a $118,766 median income, cost of living beats 91% of towns.
Is Mead safe?
Yes, Mead is safer than 84% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $307 per resident a year.
Compare Mead with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Mead. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Mead 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.
Mead detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Mead: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Mead: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Mead: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Mead: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Mead 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.