Best PlacesOrlando, FL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Orlando metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Distance to the water drives a lot of the difference between one part and the next. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by The Floridian Boricua, CC BY-SA 2.0, via commons
Orlando ranks 138th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 54 minutes away. Its strengths are state infrastructure and low taxes. The cost shows up in long commutes, car insurance costs, and summer heat.
The best neighborhoods in the Orlando 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 Orlando
The towns and districts of the Orlando 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.
Horizon West, Four Corners & Windermere
Crime runs lower, local pay stretches further, and incomes run higher.
Winter Garden, Clermont & Minneola
More households have young kids and more residents vote.
Apopka, Altamonte Springs & Wekiwa Springs
Fewer homes sit empty and health care is easier to reach.
Alafaya, Oviedo & Winter Park
More adults hold degrees and health outcomes score higher.
Sanford, Winter Springs & Lake Mary
Schools score higher, though transit reaches fewer jobs.
St. Cloud & Meadow Woods
Heat risk is lower.
Leesburg, Mount Dora & Eustis
Homes cost less and it is quieter.
Pine Hills & Ocoee
Biking is better and streets are more walkable.
Downtown Orlando
Prices have run up more.
Orlando shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 3% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Orlando's strengths and weaknesses
Orlando lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. State infrastructure is the standout, in the top 3% of metro areas. Low taxes and clean air follow.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Long commutes, car insurance costs, and summer heat hold the score down. That one depends almost entirely on which part you pick, which is what the map below settles.
Where Orlando ranks high
- State infrastructureBetter than 97% of metro areas
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 96% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than 85% of metro areas
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 82% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than 82% of metro areas
Where Orlando ranks low
- Short commute29.2 minutes each way, better than only 7% of metro areas
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 7% of metro areas
- Heat safetyBetter than only 9% of metro areas
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 9% of metro areas
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 19% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Orlando
A household needs to earn about $100,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Orlando home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $87,801, 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 Orlando's effective rate of 0.75%, 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 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Orlando
Orlando'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 Orlando.
Who works in Orlando, and how
Work in Orlando centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 78%
- Work from home 18%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Orlando
Orlando has more restaurants and bars per resident than 66% of metro areas and less parkland per resident than most metro areas. The coast is about 54 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Orlando and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Orlando growing, and who is moving in?
Orlando has grown about 26% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Miami, FL.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Orlando go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Orlando, month by month
Orlando sees roughly 133 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 94 degrees. January highs sit near 74, with lows near 50. The comfortable stretch runs November through April.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 74° | 61° | 50° |
| April | 86° | 73° | 62° |
| July | 94° | 82° | 74° |
| October | 87° | 76° | 68° |
Flying in and out of Orlando
Orlando International sits about 6 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 28.1 million passengers in 2025, with 223 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Orlando
Schools across Orlando average a B, better than 75% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Robert L. Stevenson Elementary SchoolA+ · 90% proficient
- Freedom 7 Elementary School Of International StudiesA+ · 88% proficient
- Dommerich ElementaryA+ · 87% proficient
Top middle schools
- Orlando Gifted AcademyA+ · 94% proficient
- Florida Virtual Middle SchoolA+ · 72% proficient
- Howard MiddleA+ · 71% proficient
Top high schools
- West Shore Junior/senior High SchoolA+ · 93% proficient
- Edgewood Jr/sr High SchoolA+ · 93% proficient
- Neocity AcademyA+ · 88% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Orlando school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Orlando 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 Orlando against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Orlando suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 82% of metro areas, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 18% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Orlando
Is Orlando a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Orlando ranks 138th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on state infrastructure, low taxes, and clean air, and lowest on long commutes 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 Orlando expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $383,710. The overall cost of living runs about 12% below the national average. Set against a $87,801 median income, cost of living beats 82% of metro areas.
Is Orlando safe?
Yes, Orlando is safer than 56% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $218 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Orlando?
July highs average about 94 degrees, and January highs near 74 with lows near 50. That works out to about 133 pleasant days a year, more than 80% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Orlando?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Horizon West, Four Corners & Windermere, Winter Garden, Clermont & Minneola, and Apopka, Altamonte Springs & Wekiwa Springs. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Orlando good for families?
Schools beat 75% of metro areas, crime safety beats 56%, and childcare runs $914 a month.
Is Orlando good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 82% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 65% of metro areas. About 18% of workers already work from home.
Compare Orlando with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Orlando. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Orlando 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.
Orlando detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Orlando: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Orlando: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Orlando: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Orlando: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Orlando 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.