Best PlacesPayette, ID Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Payette, 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.
Payette ranks 21,352nd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cheap car insurance by a wide margin, and education levels rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Payette
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.
Payette's strengths and weaknesses
Where Payette ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 98% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than 98% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 98% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 94% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than 89% of towns
Where Payette ranks low
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 10% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 13% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 16% of towns
- School gradeD+, better than only 16% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 17% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Payette
A household needs to earn about $76,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Payette home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $61,550, 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's effective rate of 0.44%, 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
Payette'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.
Who works in Payette, and how
Work in Payette centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 88%
- Work from home 7%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Payette
Payette has more restaurants and bars per resident than 90% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Payette and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Payette, month by month
Payette sees roughly 139 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
Boise Air Trml/Gowen Field sits about 50 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
Schools across Payette average a D+, better than 16% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- New Plymouth ElementaryA− · 56% proficient
- Fruitland Elementary SchoolC+ · 39% proficient
- Pioneer Primary SchoolC · 33% proficient
Top middle schools
- New Plymouth Middle SchoolA− · 58% proficient
- Fruitland Middle SchoolB · 43% proficient
- Weiser Middle SchoolC+ · 36% proficient
Top high schools
- Fruitland High SchoolB− · 43% proficient
- Weiser High SchoolB− · 43% proficient
- New Plymouth High SchoolC+ · 40% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Payette school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Payette 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 against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Payette
Is Payette a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Payette ranks 21,352nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, state finances, and cell coverage, and lowest on education levels and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Payette expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $307,096. The overall cost of living runs about 11% below the national average. Set against a $61,550 median income, cost of living beats 24% of towns.
Is Payette safe?
Yes, Payette is safer than 74% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $266 per resident a year.
Compare Payette with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Payette. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Payette 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 detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Payette: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Payette: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Payette: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Payette: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Payette 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.