Best PlacesPalo Verde, AZ Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Palo Verde, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Palo Verde ranks 30,426th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. Tree cover pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on population health.
The best neighborhoods in Palo Verde
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.
Palo Verde's strengths and weaknesses
Where Palo Verde ranks high
- Health outlookBetter than 90% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 89% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 137 pleasant days a year, better than 88% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 84% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 82% of towns
Where Palo Verde ranks low
- Tree shadeBetter than only 2% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 4% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 6% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 9% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 9% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Palo Verde
A household needs to earn about $91,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Palo Verde home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $74,804, 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 Palo Verde's effective rate of 0.39%, 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 Palo Verde
Palo Verde 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 Palo Verde.
Who works in Palo Verde, and how
Work in Palo Verde centers on public administration and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 7%
- Transit, walk, or bike 9%
Life in Palo Verde
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Palo Verde.
What the weather is like in Palo Verde, month by month
Palo Verde sees roughly 137 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 108 degrees. January highs sit near 65, with lows near 40. The comfortable stretch runs February through April, October, and November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 65° | 52° | 40° |
| April | 87° | 71° | 55° |
| July | 108° | 94° | 81° |
| October | 89° | 74° | 59° |
Flying in and out of Palo Verde
Phoenix Sky Harbor International sits about 40 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 25.2 million passengers in 2025, with 177 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Palo Verde
Schools across Palo Verde average a D+, better than 14% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Palo Verde Elementary SchoolC− · 30% proficient
- Arlington Elementary SchoolD · 20% proficient
- Buckeye Elementary SchoolD− · 13% proficient
Top high schools
- Buckeye Union High SchoolD · 18% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Palo Verde school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Palo Verde 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 Palo Verde against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Palo Verde
Is Palo Verde a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Palo Verde ranks 30,426th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on population health, low property taxes, and the weather, and lowest on tree cover and summer heat. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Palo Verde expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $369,953. The overall cost of living runs about 4% below the national average. Set against a $74,804 median income, cost of living beats 37% of towns.
Is Palo Verde safe?
Palo Verde is safer than 49% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $319 per resident a year.
Compare Palo Verde with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Palo Verde. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Palo Verde 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.
Palo Verde detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Palo Verde: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Palo Verde: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Palo Verde: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Palo Verde: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Palo Verde 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.