Best PlacesMobile, AL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Mobile metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by DXR, CC BY-SA 4.0, via commons
Mobile ranks 382nd of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on crime and the schools. It does better on low property taxes, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Mobile 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 Mobile
The towns and districts of the Mobile 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.
Grand Bay, Tillmans Corner & Irvington
Crime runs lower, fewer homes sit empty, and local pay stretches further.
Semmes, Wilmer & Citronelle
Tree cover is thicker, though commutes are longer.
Saraland & Eight Mile
More households have young kids, though streets are more car-dependent.
Satsuma, Chickasaw & Mount Vernon
Schools score higher, though it is noisier.
Downtown Mobile
Prices have run up more.
Prichard
Biking is better, though heat risk is higher.
Scores across Mobile run from about the 1st to the 85th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Mobile's strengths and weaknesses
Mobile ranks near the bottom because several of the basics fall short at once. Low property taxes, affordable childcare, and state infrastructure carry most of that.
The weak spots are broad rather than narrow: crime, the schools, and disaster risk all drag on the score. Those are area averages, and the map below shows which parts run well above them.
Where Mobile ranks high
- Low property taxBetter than 94% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$619 a month, better than 90% of metro areas
- State infrastructureBetter than 86% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than 82% of metro areas
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 80% of metro areas
Where Mobile ranks low
- Crime safetyBetter than only 3% of metro areas
- School gradeC−, better than only 6% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 6% of metro areas
- Household income$65,593 median, better than only 11% of metro areas
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 12% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Mobile
A household needs to earn about $49,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Mobile home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $65,593, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
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 Mobile'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 6 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Mobile
Mobile'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 Mobile.
Who works in Mobile, and how
Work in Mobile centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 88%
- Work from home 9%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Mobile
Mobile has less late-night activity than most metro areas. The coast is about 15 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Mobile and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Mobile growing, and who is moving in?
Mobile has held roughly flat in population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Daphne, AL.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Mobile go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Mobile, month by month
Mobile sees roughly 93 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 63, with lows near 43. The comfortable stretch runs February through April and October through December.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 63° | 52° | 43° |
| April | 78° | 69° | 60° |
| July | 92° | 83° | 76° |
| October | 83° | 72° | 63° |
Flying in and out of Mobile
The nearest airport, Mobile Regional, is about 5 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Louis Armstrong New Orleans International, about 134 miles away.
The best schools in and around Mobile
Schools across Mobile average a C−, better than 6% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Eicholdmertz School Of Math And ScienceA+ · 80% proficient
- Saraland Elementary SchoolA+ · 74% proficient
- Spanish Fort Elementary SchoolA · 68% proficient
Top middle schools
- Fairhope Middle SchoolA · 66% proficient
- Phillips Preparatory Middle SchoolA · 66% proficient
- Saraland Middle Schooladams CampusA · 60% proficient
Top high schools
- Spanish Fort High SchoolB · 46% proficient
- Fairhope High SchoolB · 46% proficient
- Baldwin County Virtual SchoolB− · 43% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Mobile school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Mobile 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 Mobile against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Mobile suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 9% already work from home.
Retirees
Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.
Common questions about living in Mobile
Is Mobile a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Mobile ranks 382nd of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on low property taxes, affordable childcare, and state infrastructure, and lowest on crime and the schools. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Mobile expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $196,271. The overall cost of living runs about 18% below the national average. Set against a $65,593 median income, cost of living beats 23% of metro areas.
Is Mobile safe?
Mobile is safer than 3% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $534 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Mobile?
July highs average about 92 degrees, and January highs near 63 with lows near 43. That works out to about 93 pleasant days a year, more than 55% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Mobile?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Grand Bay, Tillmans Corner & Irvington, Semmes, Wilmer & Citronelle, and Saraland & Eight Mile. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Mobile good for families?
Schools beat 6% of metro areas, crime safety beats 3%, and childcare runs $619 a month.
Is Mobile 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 9% of workers already work from home.
Compare Mobile with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Mobile. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Mobile 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.
Mobile detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Mobile: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Mobile: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Mobile: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Mobile: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Mobile 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.