Best PlacesMesa, AZ Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Mesa, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Mesa ranks 108th of 445 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It does not top any single list, but it lands above the national middle on cell coverage and low property taxes. The weaker spots are summer heat, air quality, and tree cover.
The best neighborhoods in Mesa
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 Mesa
The parts of Mesa, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the city.
Northeast
Local pay stretches further, incomes run higher, and more adults hold degrees.
Southeast Mesa
Crime runs lower and more residents vote.
Woodridge Lakes & Hohokam Village
Biking is better and fewer homes sit empty.
Southwest Mesa
Transit reaches more jobs and streets are more walkable.
West Central & Central Mesa
More households have young kids, though health care is harder to reach.
Mesa shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 6% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Mesa's strengths and weaknesses
Mesa ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Cell coverage is the standout, in the top 1% of cities. Low property taxes and low disaster risk follow.
The one real hole is summer heat, near the bottom of the country. Air quality and tree cover also cost it ground. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Mesa ranks high
- Cell coverageBetter than 99% of cities
- Low property taxBetter than 98% of cities
- Disaster safetyBetter than 95% of cities
- School gradeB+, better than 94% of cities
- Nice weatherabout 203 pleasant days a year, better than 87% of cities
Where Mesa ranks low
- Heat safetyBetter than only 2% of cities
- Air qualityBetter than only 4% of cities
- Tree shadeBetter than only 4% of cities
- Low vacancyBetter than only 29% of cities
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 38% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Mesa
A household needs to earn about $100,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Mesa home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $90,454; 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 Mesa's effective rate of 0.43%, 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 Mesa
Mesa's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Mesa.
Who works in Mesa, and how
Work in Mesa centers on retail trade and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 77%
- Work from home 18%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Mesa
Mesa has more restaurants and bars per resident than 69% of cities and more parkland per resident than 84% of cities. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Mesa and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Mesa, month by month
Mesa sees roughly 203 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 107 degrees. January highs sit near 67, with lows near 44. The comfortable stretch runs November through April.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 67° | 55° | 44° |
| April | 88° | 74° | 60° |
| July | 107° | 96° | 84° |
| October | 90° | 77° | 65° |
Flying in and out of Mesa
The nearest airport, Phoenix-Mesa Gateway, is about 8 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Phoenix Sky Harbor International, about 16 miles away.
The best schools in and around Mesa
Schools across Mesa average a B+, better than 94% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Franklin At Brimhall ElementaryA+ · 83% proficient
- Neely Traditional AcademyA+ · 82% proficient
- Montessori Education Centre Charter School - MesaA+ · 78% proficient
Top middle schools
- Franklin Junior High SchoolA+ · 78% proficient
- Asu Preparatory Academy-polytechnic Middle SchoolA− · 58% proficient
- Stapley Junior High SchoolA− · 55% proficient
Top high schools
- Gilbert Classical Academy 7-12A+ · 81% proficient
- Heritage AcademyA− · 62% proficient
- Asu Preparatory Academy-polytechnic High SchoolB · 50% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Mesa school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Mesa 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 Mesa against the other 444 cities.
Who Mesa suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 18% already work from home.
Retirees
The weather beats 87% of cities and health care access beats 56%.
Common questions about living in Mesa
Is Mesa a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Mesa ranks 108th of 445 cities. It scores highest on cell coverage, low property taxes, and low disaster risk, and lowest on summer heat and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Mesa expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $402,719. The overall cost of living runs about 2% below the national average. Set against a $90,454 median income, cost of living beats 57% of cities.
Is Mesa safe?
Yes, Mesa is safer than 68% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $357 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Mesa?
July highs average about 107 degrees, and January highs near 67 with lows near 44. That works out to about 203 pleasant days a year, more than 87% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Mesa?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Northeast, Southeast Mesa, and Woodridge Lakes & Hohokam Village. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Mesa good for families?
Schools beat 94% of cities, crime safety beats 68%, and childcare runs $1,109 a month.
Is Mesa good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 57% of cities, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 64% of cities. About 18% of workers already work from home.
Compare Mesa with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Mesa. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Mesa 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.
Mesa detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Mesa: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Mesa: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Mesa: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Mesa: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Mesa 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.