Best PlacesOmaha, NE Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Omaha metro, 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.
Photo by Iulus Ascanius at English Wikipedia, via commons
Omaha ranks 30th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It does not top any single list, but it lands above the national middle on state finances and what local pay buys. The weaker spots are the weather, property taxes, and noise.
The best neighborhoods in the Omaha 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 Omaha
The towns and districts of the Omaha 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.
Elkhorn
Incomes run higher, local pay stretches further, and more adults hold degrees.
Gretna, Chalco & Ashland
More residents vote and schools score higher.
Bennington & Blair
More households have young kids, though biking is worse.
Papillion & La Vista
Prices have run up less, though transit reaches fewer jobs.
Downtown Omaha
Streets are more walkable, though crime runs higher.
Bellevue & Plattsmouth
More homes sit empty.
Missouri Valley, Carter Lake & Logan
Homes cost less, though health outcomes score lower.
Council Bluffs
It is noisier and health care is harder to reach.
Fort Calhoun
Scores close to Council Bluffs, except that tree cover is thicker here.
Omaha shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 4% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Omaha's strengths and weaknesses
Omaha ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. State finances is the standout, in the top 1% of metro areas. What local pay buys and few empty homes follow.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. The weather, property taxes, and noise hold the score down. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Omaha ranks high
- State fiscal healthBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 97% of metro areas
- Low vacancyBetter than 91% of metro areas
- Health outlookBetter than 85% of metro areas
- Household income$96,023 median, better than 83% of metro areas
Where Omaha ranks low
- Nice weatherabout 63 pleasant days a year, better than only 8% of metro areas
- Low property taxBetter than only 10% of metro areas
- QuietBetter than only 31% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than only 32% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 32% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Omaha
A household needs to earn about $81,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Omaha home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $96,023, 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 Omaha's effective rate of 1.56%, 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 10 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Omaha
Omaha runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Omaha.
Who works in Omaha, and how
Work in Omaha centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 82%
- Work from home 15%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Omaha
Omaha has more restaurants and bars per resident than 85% of metro areas and more parkland per resident than 91% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Omaha and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Omaha growing, and who is moving in?
Omaha has grown about 11% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Lincoln, NE.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Omaha go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Omaha, month by month
Omaha sees roughly 63 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 36, with lows near 19. The comfortable stretch runs May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 36° | 26° | 19° |
| April | 66° | 53° | 42° |
| July | 88° | 78° | 69° |
| October | 67° | 55° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Omaha
Eppley Airfield sits about 9 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 2.6 million passengers in 2025, with 73 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Omaha
Schools across Omaha average a B, better than 73% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Hitchcock Elementary SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
- Blue Sage ElementaryA+ · 88% proficient
- Treynor Elementary SchoolA+ · 86% proficient
Top middle schools
- Treynor Middle SchoolA+ · 82% proficient
- Elkhorn Valley View Middle SchoolA+ · 79% proficient
- Elkhorn Grandview Middle SchoolA+ · 78% proficient
Top high schools
- Elkhorn South High SchoolA+ · 84% proficient
- Treynor High SchoolA+ · 82% proficient
- Logan-magnolia Jr-sr High SchoolA+ · 81% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Omaha school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Omaha 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 Omaha against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Omaha suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 97% of metro areas and 15% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Omaha
Is Omaha a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Omaha ranks 30th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on state finances, what local pay buys, and few empty homes, and lowest on the weather and property taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Omaha expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $281,749. The overall cost of living runs about 16% below the national average. Set against a $96,023 median income, cost of living beats 97% of metro areas.
Is Omaha safe?
Yes, Omaha is safer than 74% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $284 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Omaha?
July highs average about 88 degrees, and January highs near 36 with lows near 19. That works out to about 63 pleasant days a year, more than 8% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Omaha?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Elkhorn, Gretna, Chalco & Ashland, and Bennington & Blair. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Omaha good for families?
Schools beat 73% of metro areas, crime safety beats 74%, and childcare runs $1,023 a month.
Is Omaha good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 97% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 54% of metro areas. About 15% of workers already work from home.
Compare Omaha with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Omaha. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Omaha 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.
Omaha detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Omaha: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Omaha: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Omaha: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Omaha: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Omaha 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.