Best PlacesOdessa, FL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Odessa, 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.
Odessa ranks 1,644th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on state infrastructure by a wide margin, and car insurance costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Odessa
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.
Odessa's strengths and weaknesses
Where Odessa ranks high
- State infrastructureBetter than 99% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 98% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 96% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 96% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 96% of towns
Where Odessa ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 4% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 5% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 5% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 7% of towns
- Short commute35.6 minutes each way, better than only 12% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Odessa
A household needs to earn about $137,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Odessa home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $127,944; 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 Odessa's effective rate of 0.89%, 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 Odessa
Odessa runs younger than the country, 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 Odessa.
Who works in Odessa, and how
Work in Odessa centers on health care & social and professional & technical. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 69%
- Work from home 30%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Odessa
Odessa has more restaurants and bars per resident than 86% of towns and more parkland per resident than 89% of towns. The coast is about 18 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Odessa and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Odessa, month by month
Odessa sees roughly 133 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 93 degrees. January highs sit near 73, with lows near 52. The comfortable stretch runs November through April.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 73° | 62° | 52° |
| April | 85° | 75° | 66° |
| July | 93° | 84° | 77° |
| October | 88° | 78° | 70° |
Flying in and out of Odessa
Tampa International sits about 14 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 12.1 million passengers in 2025, with 135 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Odessa
Schools across Odessa average an A, better than 91% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Hammond Elementary SchoolA+ · 73% proficient
- Oakstead Elementary SchoolA · 72% proficient
- Odessa Elementary SchoolA · 70% proficient
Top middle schools
- Walker Middle Magnet SchoolA+ · 76% proficient
- Seven Springs Middle SchoolA+ · 69% proficient
- Charles S. Rushe Middle SchoolA · 65% proficient
Top high schools
- Steinbrenner High SchoolA · 73% proficient
- Sunlake High SchoolA− · 67% proficient
- James W. Mitchell High SchoolA− · 64% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Odessa school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Odessa 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 Odessa against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Odessa
Is Odessa a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Odessa ranks 1,644th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on state infrastructure, low crime, and what local pay buys, and lowest on car insurance costs and disaster risk. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Odessa expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $517,389. The overall cost of living runs about 8% below the national average. Set against a $127,944 median income, cost of living beats 96% of towns.
Is Odessa safe?
Yes, Odessa is safer than 98% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $88 per resident a year.
Compare Odessa with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Odessa. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Odessa 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.
Odessa detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Odessa: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Odessa: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Odessa: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Odessa: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Odessa 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.