Best PlacesPenasco, NM Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Penasco, 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.
Penasco ranks 48,272nd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low property taxes by a wide margin, and cell coverage ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Penasco
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.
Penasco's strengths and weaknesses
Where Penasco ranks high
- Low property taxBetter than 97% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 162 pleasant days a year, better than 95% of towns
- TransitBetter than 93% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 92% of towns
- QuietBetter than 91% of towns
Where Penasco ranks low
- Cell coverageBetter than only 1% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 3% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 3% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 6% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 7% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Penasco
A household needs to earn about $50,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Penasco home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $49,917; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Penasco's effective rate of 0.25%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 6 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Penasco
Penasco runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Penasco.
Who works in Penasco, and how
Work in Penasco centers on health care & social and construction. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 76%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 10%
Life in Penasco
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Penasco.
What the weather is like in Penasco, month by month
Penasco sees roughly 162 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 41, with lows near 10. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 41° | 25° | 10° |
| April | 65° | 47° | 27° |
| July | 88° | 70° | 51° |
| October | 68° | 48° | 30° |
Flying in and out of Penasco
The nearest airport, Santa Fe Regional, is about 45 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Albuquerque International Sunport, about 94 miles away.
The best schools in and around Penasco
Schools across Penasco average a D+, better than 18% of towns.
Top high schools
- Penasco HighC · 31% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Penasco school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Penasco 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 Penasco against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Penasco
Is Penasco a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Penasco ranks 48,272nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low property taxes, the weather, and transit, and lowest on cell coverage and the cost of living against local pay. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Penasco expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $207,726. The overall cost of living runs about 4% above the national average. Set against a $49,917 median income, cost of living beats 3% of towns.
Is Penasco safe?
Penasco is safer than 3% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $1,016 per resident a year.
Compare Penasco with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Penasco. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Penasco 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.
Penasco detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Penasco: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Penasco: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Penasco: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Penasco: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Penasco 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.