Best PlacesPalm Springs, FL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Palm Springs, 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.
Palm Springs ranks 1,890th of 2,098 U.S. cities 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 Palm Springs
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 Palm Springs
The parts of Palm Springs, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first.
Lakewood Gardens South
Woodhaven
Lake Echo & Mango Heights
Village Green
Scores across Palm Springs run from about the 5th to the 51st percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Palm Springs' strengths and weaknesses
Where Palm Springs ranks high
- State infrastructureBetter than 96% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 95% of cities
- WalkabilityBetter than 93% of cities
- TransitBetter than 92% of cities
- Air qualityBetter than 90% of cities
Where Palm Springs ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 2% of cities
- Crime safetyBetter than only 2% of cities
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 3% of cities
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 5% of cities
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 5% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Palm Springs
A household needs to earn about $77,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Palm Springs home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $74,456; 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 Palm Springs' 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 6 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Palm Springs
Palm Springs 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 Palm Springs.
Who works in Palm Springs, and how
Work in Palm Springs centers on retail trade and construction. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Palm Springs
Palm Springs has more restaurants and bars per resident than 77% of cities. The coast is about 8 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Palm Springs and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Palm Springs, month by month
Palm Springs 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.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 78° | 67° | 57° |
| April | 85° | 76° | 68° |
| July | 92° | 84° | 77° |
| October | 87° | 80° | 73° |
Flying in and out of Palm Springs
Palm Beach International sits about 3 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 4.3 million passengers in 2025, with 67 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Palm Springs
Schools across Palm Springs average a B−, better than 42% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Clifford O Taylor/kirklane ElementaryC · 32% proficient
- Palm Springs Elementary SchoolC− · 30% proficient
Top middle schools
- Conniston Middle SchoolC+ · 35% proficient
- Palm Springs Middle SchoolC · 32% proficient
- L C Swain Middle SchoolC− · 30% proficient
Top high schools
- G-star School Of The ArtsA− · 62% proficient
- Forest Hill Community High SchoolB− · 45% proficient
- John I. Leonard High SchoolC · 33% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Palm Springs school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Palm Springs 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 Springs against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Palm Springs suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 10% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Palm Springs
Is Palm Springs a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Palm Springs ranks 1,890th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on state infrastructure, low taxes, and walkability, and lowest on car insurance costs and crime. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Palm Springs expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $297,336. The overall cost of living runs about 6% below the national average. Set against a $74,456 median income, cost of living beats 21% of cities.
Is Palm Springs safe?
Palm Springs is safer than 2% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $410 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Palm Springs?
July highs average about 92 degrees, and January highs near 78 with lows near 57. That works out to about 89 pleasant days a year, more than 53% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Palm Springs?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Lakewood Gardens South, Woodhaven, and Lake Echo & Mango Heights. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Compare Palm Springs with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Palm Springs. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Palm Springs 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 Springs detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Palm Springs: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Palm Springs: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Palm Springs: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Palm Springs: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Palm Springs 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.