Best PlacesPayson, UT Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Payson, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Payson ranks 7,296th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on fast internet by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Payson
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.
Payson's strengths and weaknesses
Where Payson ranks high
- Internet speedBetter than 99% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 99% of towns
- BikingBetter than 98% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 98% of towns
- TransitBetter than 97% of towns
Where Payson ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 6% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 9% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 9% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 13% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Payson
A household needs to earn about $108,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Payson home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $94,337, 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 Payson's effective rate of 0.48%, 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 Payson
Payson 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 Payson.
Who works in Payson, and how
Work in Payson centers on construction and retail trade. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 83%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Payson
Payson has more restaurants and bars per resident than 67% of towns and more parkland per resident than 89% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Payson and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Payson, month by month
Payson sees roughly 82 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 95 degrees. January highs sit near 39, with lows near 21. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, August, and September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 39° | 30° | 21° |
| April | 65° | 50° | 37° |
| July | 95° | 79° | 62° |
| October | 67° | 51° | 37° |
Flying in and out of Payson
The nearest airport, Provo Municipal, is about 13 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Salt Lake City International, about 54 miles away.
The best schools in and around Payson
Schools across Payson average a C, better than 29% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Mt. Loafer SchoolB · 48% proficient
- Foothills SchoolB · 47% proficient
- Spring Lake SchoolB− · 44% proficient
Top middle schools
- Salem Junior HighC+ · 39% proficient
- Mt. Nebo MiddleC · 31% proficient
- Payson Jr HighC− · 28% proficient
Top high schools
- Spanish Fork HighC · 35% proficient
- Salem Hills HighC · 33% proficient
- Payson HighC− · 26% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Payson school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Payson 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 Payson against the other 50,332 towns.
Who Payson suits
Families
Schools land around the 29th percentile and crime safety beats 86%.
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 77% of towns, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 14% already work from home.
Retirees
Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.
Common questions about living in Payson
Is Payson a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Payson ranks 7,296th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on fast internet, population health, and biking, and lowest on noise and an overheated housing market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Payson expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $433,066. The overall cost of living runs about 10% below the national average. Set against a $94,337 median income, cost of living beats 77% of towns.
Is Payson safe?
Yes, Payson is safer than 86% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $232 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Payson?
July highs average about 95 degrees, and January highs near 39 with lows near 21. That works out to about 82 pleasant days a year, more than 49% of towns.
Is Payson good for families?
Schools beat 29% of towns, crime safety beats 86%, and childcare runs $929 a month.
Compare Payson with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Payson. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Payson 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.
Payson detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Payson: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Payson: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Payson: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Payson: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Payson 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.