Best PlacesPalm Beach Lakes, West Palm Beach, FL Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Palm Beach Lakes, West Palm Beach, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Palm Beach Lakes, West Palm Beach ranks 5,369th of 5,983 U.S. neighborhoods on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on state infrastructure by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.

#5,369
of 5,983 neighborhoods
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
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of 5,983 neighborhoods
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The best neighborhoods in Palm Beach Lakes, West Palm Beach

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Palm Beach Lakes, West Palm Beach area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
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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.

Palm Beach Lakes, West Palm Beach's strengths and weaknesses

Top 5%State infrastructure
Top 5%Low taxes
Top 10%Low property taxes
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Palm Beach Lakes, West Palm Beach with other neighborhoods.

Where Palm Beach Lakes, West Palm Beach ranks high

  • State infrastructureBetter than 96% of neighborhoods
  • Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 95% of neighborhoods
  • Low property taxBetter than 90% of neighborhoods
  • Air qualityBetter than 88% of neighborhoods
  • State fiscal healthBetter than 76% of neighborhoods

Where Palm Beach Lakes, West Palm Beach ranks low

  • QuietBetter than only 1% of neighborhoods
  • Disaster safetyBetter than only 2% of neighborhoods
  • Local economyBetter than only 2% of neighborhoods
  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 3% of neighborhoods
  • Heat safetyBetter than only 9% of neighborhoods

What it costs to buy a home in Palm Beach Lakes, West Palm Beach

A household needs to earn about $90,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Palm Beach Lakes, West Palm Beach home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $59,960, so buying stretches a typical household.

Income to buy the median home
$90,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$2,097
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $356,795 home
Median rent
$1,566
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$1,819
Property tax$159
Homeowners insurance$119

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 Palm Beach Lakes, West Palm Beach's effective rate of 0.53%, 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 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Palm Beach Lakes, West Palm Beach

Palm Beach Lakes, West Palm Beach runs older than the country.

Median age
44
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
17%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.8
above the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1817%
18 to 3421%
35 to 4922%
50 to 6424%
65 and older17%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Palm Beach Lakes, West Palm Beach.


Who works in Palm Beach Lakes, West Palm Beach, and how

Work in Palm Beach Lakes, West Palm Beach centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.

Work from home
3%
below the national average
Unemployment
9.9%
above the national average
Job growth
−2.3%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social22%
Retail trade19%
Arts & entertainment11%
Public administration10%
Admin & support services7%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 90%
  • Work from home 3%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 7%

Life in Palm Beach Lakes, West Palm Beach

Palm Beach Lakes, West Palm Beach has more restaurants and bars per resident than 78% of neighborhoods. The coast is about 6 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Palm Beach Lakes, West Palm Beach and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
29
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 91.9 per 10,000 residents, more than 78% of neighborhoods
To the coast
6 min
drive to the nearest ocean beaches

What the weather is like in Palm Beach Lakes, West Palm Beach, month by month

Palm Beach Lakes, West Palm Beach sees roughly 89 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 78, with lows near 57. The comfortable stretch runs November through March.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January78°67°57°
April85°76°68°
July92°84°77°
October87°80°73°

Flying in and out of Palm Beach Lakes, West Palm Beach

Palm Beach International sits about 2 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 4.3 million passengers in 2025, with 67 nonstop destinations.

Nearest airport
PBI
Palm Beach International, about 2 miles
Airport size
Medium hub
51st-busiest in the US, 67 nonstop destinations
Average drive
8 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Palm Beach Lakes, West Palm Beach

Schools across Palm Beach Lakes, West Palm Beach average a C+, better than 42% of neighborhoods.

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Palm Beach Lakes, West Palm Beach school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Palm Beach Lakes, West Palm 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 Palm Beach Lakes, West Palm Beach against the other 5,982 neighborhoods.


Common questions about living in Palm Beach Lakes, West Palm Beach

Is Palm Beach Lakes, West Palm Beach a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Palm Beach Lakes, West Palm Beach ranks 5,369th of 5,983 neighborhoods. It scores highest on state infrastructure, low taxes, and low property taxes, and lowest on noise and disaster risk. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Palm Beach Lakes, West Palm Beach expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $356,795. The overall cost of living runs about 1% above the national average. Set against a $59,960 median income, cost of living beats 21% of neighborhoods.

Is Palm Beach Lakes, West Palm Beach safe?

Palm Beach Lakes, West Palm Beach is safer than 25% of neighborhoods. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $411 per resident a year.


Compare Palm Beach Lakes, West Palm Beach with other neighborhoods


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Palm Beach Lakes, West Palm Beach. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Palm Beach Lakes, West Palm 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.

Palm Beach Lakes, West Palm Beach detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Palm Beach Lakes, West Palm Beach: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Palm Beach Lakes, West Palm Beach: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Palm Beach Lakes, West Palm Beach: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Palm Beach Lakes, West Palm Beach: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Palm Beach Lakes, West Palm Beach detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.