Best PlacesOrange Beach, AL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Orange Beach, 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.
Orange Beach ranks 22,632nd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on health care access by a wide margin, and disaster risk is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Orange Beach
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.
Orange Beach's strengths and weaknesses
Where Orange Beach ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 95% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 95% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 94% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 91% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 89% of towns
Where Orange Beach ranks low
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 2% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 7% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 9% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 11% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Orange Beach
A household needs to earn about $137,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Orange Beach home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $98,631, 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 Orange Beach's effective rate of 0.29%, 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.
Who lives in Orange Beach
Orange Beach runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Orange Beach.
Who works in Orange Beach, and how
Work in Orange Beach centers on retail trade and construction. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 77%
- Work from home 21%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Orange Beach
Orange Beach has more restaurants and bars per resident than 97% of towns and more parkland per resident than 90% of towns. The coast is about 5 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Orange Beach and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Orange Beach, month by month
Orange Beach sees roughly 107 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 63, with lows near 42. The comfortable stretch runs February through May and October through December.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 63° | 52° | 42° |
| April | 77° | 67° | 57° |
| July | 90° | 82° | 74° |
| October | 82° | 70° | 61° |
Flying in and out of Orange Beach
The nearest airport, Pensacola International, is about 26 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Louis Armstrong New Orleans International, about 162 miles away.
The best schools in and around Orange Beach
Schools across Orange Beach average a B−, better than 54% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Hellen Caro Elementary SchoolA · 68% proficient
- Gulf Shores Elementary SchoolA− · 56% proficient
- Elberta Elementary SchoolB+ · 54% proficient
Top middle schools
- Gulf Shores Middle SchoolB+ · 49% proficient
- Central Baldwin Middle SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
- Jim C. Bailey Middle SchoolC+ · 37% proficient
Top high schools
- Gulf Shores High SchoolB− · 45% proficient
- Robertsdale High SchoolC+ · 36% proficient
- Elberta High SchoolC+ · 35% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Orange Beach school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Orange Beach 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 Orange Beach against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Orange Beach
Is Orange Beach a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Orange Beach ranks 22,632nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on health care access, low property taxes, and fast internet, and lowest on disaster risk 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 Orange Beach expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $563,567. The overall cost of living runs about 11% above the national average. Set against a $98,631 median income, cost of living beats 70% of towns.
Is Orange Beach safe?
Orange Beach is safer than 46% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $311 per resident a year.
Compare Orange Beach with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Orange Beach. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Orange Beach 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.
Orange Beach detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Orange Beach: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Orange Beach: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Orange Beach: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Orange Beach: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Orange Beach 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.