Best PlacesPalmetto Beach, AL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Palmetto Beach, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Palmetto Beach ranks 41,917th 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 Palmetto 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.
Palmetto Beach's strengths and weaknesses
Where Palmetto Beach ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 97% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 97% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 96% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 89% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 86% of towns
Where Palmetto Beach ranks low
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 2% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 2% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 7% 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 Palmetto Beach
A household needs to earn about $144,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Palmetto Beach home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $73,671, 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 Palmetto Beach's effective rate of 0.25%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Palmetto Beach
Palmetto 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 Palmetto Beach.
Who works in Palmetto Beach, and how
Work in Palmetto Beach centers on retail trade and professional & technical. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 81%
- Work from home 18%
- Transit, walk, or bike 1%
Life in Palmetto Beach
The coast is about 1 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Palmetto Beach, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Palmetto Beach, month by month
Palmetto Beach sees roughly 120 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 60, with lows near 42. The comfortable stretch runs February through May, October, and November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 60° | 50° | 42° |
| April | 75° | 66° | 57° |
| July | 87° | 80° | 73° |
| October | 79° | 68° | 60° |
Flying in and out of Palmetto Beach
The nearest airport, Mobile International, is about 28 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Louis Armstrong New Orleans International, about 140 miles away.
The best schools in and around Palmetto Beach
Schools across Palmetto Beach average a B−, better than 56% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Dauphin Island Elementary SchoolA− · 58% proficient
- Gulf Shores Elementary SchoolA− · 56% proficient
- Swift Elementary SchoolD+ · 22% proficient
Top middle schools
- Gulf Shores Middle SchoolB+ · 49% proficient
Top high schools
- Gulf Shores High SchoolB− · 45% proficient
- Foley High SchoolC− · 26% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Palmetto Beach school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Palmetto 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 Palmetto Beach against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Palmetto Beach
Is Palmetto Beach a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Palmetto Beach ranks 41,917th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on health care access, low property taxes, and civic engagement, and lowest on disaster risk and crime. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Palmetto Beach expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $596,000. The overall cost of living runs about 5% above the national average. Set against a $73,671 median income, cost of living beats 43% of towns.
Is Palmetto Beach safe?
Palmetto Beach is safer than 2% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $772 per resident a year.
Compare Palmetto Beach with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Palmetto Beach. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Palmetto 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.
Palmetto Beach detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Palmetto Beach: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Palmetto Beach: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Palmetto Beach: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Palmetto Beach: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Palmetto 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.