Best PlacesMiami Lakes, FL Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Miami Lakes, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Miami Lakes ranks 1,385th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on state infrastructure by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.

#1,385
of 2,098 cities
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 2,098 cities
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Miami Lakes

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Miami Lakes area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

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.

Miami Lakes' strengths and weaknesses

Top 5%State infrastructure
Top 5%Low taxes
Top 10%Population health
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Miami Lakes with other cities.

Where Miami Lakes ranks high

  • State infrastructureBetter than 96% of cities
  • Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 95% of cities
  • Health outlookBetter than 94% of cities
  • Low vacancyBetter than 88% of cities
  • Air qualityBetter than 88% of cities

Where Miami Lakes ranks low

  • QuietBetter than only 1% of cities
  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 2% of cities
  • Disaster safetyBetter than only 7% of cities
  • Crime safetyBetter than only 9% of cities
  • Heat safetyBetter than only 13% of cities

What it costs to buy a home in Miami Lakes

A household needs to earn about $164,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Miami Lakes home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $113,549, so buying stretches a typical household.

Income to buy the median home
$164,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$3,824
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $623,746 home
Median rent
$2,215
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$3,180
Property tax$436
Homeowners insurance$208

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 Lakes' effective rate of 0.84%, 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.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Miami Lakes

Miami Lakes's age mix sits close to the national median, and households here run larger than average.

Median age
42
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
16%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.9
above the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1819%
18 to 3422%
35 to 4921%
50 to 6422%
65 and older16%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Miami Lakes.


Who works in Miami Lakes, and how

Work in Miami Lakes centers on health care & social and professional & technical. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
12%
below the national average
Unemployment
1.6%
below the national average
Job growth
+4.4%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social16%
Professional & technical11%
Transportation & warehousing8%
Retail trade8%
Education8%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 85%
  • Work from home 12%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 3%

Life in Miami Lakes

Miami Lakes has more restaurants and bars per resident than 76% of cities and more parkland per resident than 83% of cities. The coast is about 18 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Miami Lakes and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
142
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 46.6 per 10,000 residents, more than 76% of cities
Coffee shops
12
about 3.9 per 10,000 residents, more than 76% of cities
Parkland
110 acres
about 3.6 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 83% of cities
To the coast
18 min
drive to the nearest ocean beaches

What the weather is like in Miami Lakes, month by month

Miami Lakes sees roughly 100 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 79, with lows near 59. The comfortable stretch runs November through March.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January79°68°59°
April87°77°69°
July92°84°77°
October88°80°73°

Flying in and out of Miami Lakes

Miami International sits about 8 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 26.2 million passengers in 2025, with 233 nonstop destinations.

Nearest airport
MIA
Miami International, about 8 miles
Airport size
Large hub
10th-busiest in the US, 233 nonstop destinations
Average drive
12 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Miami Lakes

Schools across Miami Lakes average an A, better than 85% of cities.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Miami Lakes school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Miami Lakes 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 Lakes against the other 2,097 cities.


Who Miami Lakes suits

Families

Schools beat 85% of cities.

See the families priority ↑

Remote workers

12% already work from home.

See the remote-work priority ↑

Retirees

The weather beats 60% of cities.

See the retirees priority ↑


Common questions about living in Miami Lakes

Is Miami Lakes a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Miami Lakes ranks 1,385th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on state infrastructure, low taxes, and population health, and lowest on noise and car insurance costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Miami Lakes expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $623,746. The overall cost of living runs about 10% above the national average. Set against a $113,549 median income, cost of living beats 59% of cities.

Is Miami Lakes safe?

Miami Lakes is safer than 9% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $332 per resident a year.

What is the weather like in Miami Lakes?

July highs average about 92 degrees, and January highs near 79 with lows near 59. That works out to about 100 pleasant days a year, more than 60% of cities.

Is Miami Lakes good for families?

Schools beat 85% of cities, crime safety beats 9%, and childcare runs $844 a month.


Compare Miami Lakes with other cities


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Miami Lakes. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Miami Lakes 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 Lakes detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Miami Lakes: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Miami Lakes: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Miami Lakes: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Miami Lakes: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Miami Lakes detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.