Best PlacesPayette County, ID Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in Payette County, 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.
Payette County ranks 758th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cheap car insurance by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Payette County
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 Payette County
The parts of Payette County, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the county.
New Plymouth
Incomes run higher, local pay stretches further, and schools score higher.
Fruitland
Payette
Fewer adults hold degrees and fewer residents vote.
Scores across Payette County run from about the 23rd to the 80th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Payette County's strengths and weaknesses
Where Payette County ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 99% of counties
- Cell coverageBetter than 96% of counties
- Low vacancyBetter than 96% of counties
- State fiscal healthBetter than 96% of counties
- Crime safetyBetter than 93% of counties
Where Payette County ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 8% of counties
- Tree shadeBetter than only 10% of counties
- Air qualityBetter than only 15% of counties
- Internet speedBetter than only 16% of counties
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 23% of counties
What it costs to buy a home in Payette County
A household needs to earn about $88,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Payette County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $73,930, 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 Payette County's effective rate of 0.46%, 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 Payette County
Payette County'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 Payette County.
Who works in Payette County, and how
Work in Payette County centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 89%
- Work from home 7%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Payette County
Payette County has more restaurants and bars per resident than 76% of counties. That concentrates in some parts of Payette County and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Payette County growing, and who is moving in?
Payette County has grown about 22% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Boise, ID.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Payette County go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Payette County, month by month
Payette County sees roughly 138 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 98 degrees. January highs sit near 41, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 41° | 31° | 23° |
| April | 68° | 53° | 37° |
| July | 98° | 81° | 62° |
| October | 68° | 52° | 37° |
Flying in and out of Payette County
Boise Air Trml/Gowen Field sits about 46 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 2.6 million passengers in 2025, with 59 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Payette County
Schools across Payette County average a C+, better than 48% of counties.
Top elementary schools
- New Plymouth ElementaryA− · 56% proficient
- Fruitland Elementary SchoolC+ · 39% proficient
- Payette Primary SchoolC− · 30% proficient
Top middle schools
- New Plymouth Middle SchoolA− · 58% proficient
- Fruitland Middle SchoolB · 43% proficient
- Mccain Middle SchoolC · 35% proficient
Top high schools
- Fruitland High SchoolB− · 43% proficient
- New Plymouth High SchoolC+ · 40% proficient
- Payette High SchoolD · 23% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Payette County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Payette County 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 Payette County against the other 3,143 counties.
Who Payette County suits
Families
Schools land around the 48th percentile and crime safety beats 93%.
Common questions about living in Payette County
Is Payette County a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Payette County ranks 758th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, cell coverage, and few empty homes, and lowest on an overheated housing market and tree cover. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Payette County expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $352,965. The overall cost of living runs about 7% below the national average. Set against a $73,930 median income, cost of living beats 44% of counties.
Is Payette County safe?
Yes, Payette County is safer than 93% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $247 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Payette County?
July highs average about 98 degrees, and January highs near 41 with lows near 23. That works out to about 138 pleasant days a year, more than 87% of counties.
What are the best neighborhoods in Payette County?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are New Plymouth, Fruitland, and Payette. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Compare Payette County with other counties
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Payette County. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Payette County 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.
Payette County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Payette County: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Payette County: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Payette County: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Payette County: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Payette County 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.