Best PlacesMiami, FL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Miami metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Distance to the water drives a lot of the difference between one part and the next. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by ashleyinthestar, Unsplash License, via unsplash
Miami ranks 309th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 11 minutes away. Its strengths are transit and walkability. The cost shows up in car insurance costs, an overheated housing market, and summer heat.
The best neighborhoods in the Miami metro
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 Miami
The towns and districts of the Miami metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Miami Beach, North Bay Village & Key Biscayne
More adults hold degrees, streets are more walkable, and biking is better.
Coral Springs, Margate & Wellington
Local pay stretches further and fewer homes sit empty.
Hialeah, Pembroke Pines & Miramar
Prices have run up less and incomes run higher.
Belle Glade, Pahokee & South Bay
More households have young kids, though transit reaches fewer jobs.
West Palm Beach, Lake Worth & Boynton Beach
Health care is easier to reach, though heat risk is higher.
Fort Lauderdale, Hallandale Beach & Aventura
Crime runs higher.
Homestead, Kendall & Doral
Scores close to Fort Lauderdale, Hallandale Beach & Aventura, except that commutes are longer here.
Downtown Miami
Fewer residents vote and it is noisier.
Miami Gardens, Hollywood & Lauderhill
Health outcomes score lower.
Miami shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 2% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Miami's strengths and weaknesses
Miami ranks near the bottom because several of the basics fall short at once. Transit is the standout, in the top 2% of metro areas. Walkability and state infrastructure follow.
The weak spots are broad rather than narrow: car insurance costs, an overheated housing market, and summer heat all drag on the score. Those are area averages, and the map below shows which parts run well above them.
Where Miami ranks high
- TransitBetter than 98% of metro areas
- WalkabilityBetter than 97% of metro areas
- State infrastructureBetter than 97% of metro areas
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 96% of metro areas
- BikingBetter than 95% of metro areas
Where Miami ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 2% of metro areas
- Heat safetyBetter than only 6% of metro areas
- Short commute29.3 minutes each way, better than only 6% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 7% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Miami
A household needs to earn about $130,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Miami home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $89,148, 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 Miami's effective rate of 0.84%, 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 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Miami
Miami runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Miami.
Who works in Miami, and how
Work in Miami centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 78%
- Work from home 15%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Miami
Miami has less parkland per resident than most metro areas and less late-night activity than most metro areas. The coast is about 11 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Miami and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Miami growing, and who is moving in?
Miami has grown about 10% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from New York, NY.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Miami go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Miami, month by month
Miami sees roughly 84 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 79, with lows near 60. The comfortable stretch runs December through March.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 79° | 69° | 60° |
| April | 86° | 78° | 70° |
| July | 92° | 85° | 78° |
| October | 88° | 81° | 75° |
Flying in and out of Miami
Miami International sits about 2 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 26.2 million passengers in 2025, with 233 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Miami
Schools across Miami average a B, better than 73% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- True North Classical AcademyA+ · 89% proficient
- Morikami Park Elementary SchoolA+ · 89% proficient
- True North Classical Academy At DadelandA+ · 88% proficient
Top middle schools
- Doral Academy Of TechnologyA+ · 98% proficient
- Bak Middle School Of The ArtsA+ · 89% proficient
- George Washington Carver Middle SchoolA+ · 86% proficient
Top high schools
- Terra Environmental Research InstituteA+ · 92% proficient
- Doral Performing Arts & Entertainment AcademyA+ · 88% proficient
- Mast AcademyA+ · 87% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Miami school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Miami 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 Miami against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Miami suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 15% already work from home.
Retirees
Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.
Common questions about living in Miami
Is Miami a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Miami ranks 309th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on transit, walkability, and state infrastructure, and lowest on car insurance costs 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 Miami expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $496,412. The overall cost of living runs about 12% above the national average. Set against a $89,148 median income, cost of living beats 23% of metro areas.
Is Miami safe?
Miami is safer than 9% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $325 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Miami?
July highs average about 92 degrees, and January highs near 79 with lows near 60. That works out to about 84 pleasant days a year, more than 46% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Miami?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Miami Beach, North Bay Village & Key Biscayne, Coral Springs, Margate & Wellington, and Hialeah, Pembroke Pines & Miramar. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Miami good for families?
Schools beat 73% of metro areas, crime safety beats 9%, and childcare runs $979 a month.
Is Miami good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 23% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 76% of metro areas. About 15% of workers already work from home.
Compare Miami with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Miami. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Miami 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.
Miami detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Miami: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Miami: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Miami: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Miami: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Miami 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.