Best PlacesPensacola, FL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Pensacola metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Distance to the water drives a lot of the difference between one part and the next. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Ebyabe, CC BY-SA 3.0, via wiki
Pensacola ranks 235th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 23 minutes away. Its strengths are state infrastructure and low taxes. The cost shows up in disaster risk, car insurance costs, and summer heat.
The best neighborhoods in the Pensacola metro
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 Pensacola
The towns and districts of the Pensacola metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Navarre & Gulf Breeze
Schools score higher, incomes run higher, and local pay stretches further.
Pace
It is quieter and more residents vote.
Bagdad
Fewer homes sit empty and prices have run up less.
Downtown Pensacola
Commutes are shorter and biking is better.
Bellview, Ensley & Gonzalez
More households have young kids, though fewer adults hold degrees.
Milton & East Milton
Crime runs lower.
Molino & Century
Tree cover is thicker and homes cost less.
Myrtle Grove, Warrington & West Pensacola
Scores close to Molino & Century, except that heat risk is higher here.
Pensacola shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 1% of the country and others in the top 8%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Pensacola's strengths and weaknesses
Pensacola lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. State infrastructure is the standout, in the top 3% of metro areas. Low taxes and a strong job market follow.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Disaster risk, car insurance costs, and summer heat hold the score down. That varies block to block rather than evenly, and the map below shows where.
Where Pensacola ranks high
- State infrastructureBetter than 97% of metro areas
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 96% of metro areas
- Local economyBetter than 82% of metro areas
- QuietBetter than 80% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than 77% of metro areas
Where Pensacola ranks low
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 6% of metro areas
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 10% of metro areas
- Heat safetyBetter than only 12% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than only 15% of metro areas
- Short commute26.2 minutes each way, better than only 18% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Pensacola
A household needs to earn about $74,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Pensacola home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $80,458, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
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 Pensacola's effective rate of 0.62%, 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 Pensacola
Pensacola'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 Pensacola.
Who works in Pensacola, and how
Work in Pensacola centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 81%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Pensacola
Pensacola has more restaurants and bars per resident than 70% of metro areas and less late-night activity than most metro areas. The coast is about 23 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Pensacola and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Pensacola growing, and who is moving in?
Pensacola has grown about 14% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Crestview, FL.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Pensacola go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Pensacola, month by month
Pensacola sees roughly 124 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 91 degrees. January highs sit near 63, with lows near 45. The comfortable stretch runs February through April and October through December.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 63° | 53° | 45° |
| April | 78° | 69° | 61° |
| July | 91° | 83° | 77° |
| October | 82° | 73° | 64° |
Flying in and out of Pensacola
The nearest airport, Pensacola International, is about 6 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Louis Armstrong New Orleans International, about 181 miles away.
The best schools in and around Pensacola
Schools across Pensacola average a B−, better than 69% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Gulf Breeze Elementary SchoolA+ · 84% proficient
- N. B. Cook Elementary SchoolA+ · 75% proficient
- Cordova Park Elementary SchoolA+ · 74% proficient
Top middle schools
- Gulf Breeze Middle SchoolA+ · 78% proficient
- Brown Barge Middle SchoolA+ · 73% proficient
- Thomas L Sims Middle SchoolA+ · 69% proficient
Top high schools
- Gulf Breeze High SchoolA · 74% proficient
- J. M. Tate Senior High SchoolB+ · 57% proficient
- Pensacola High SchoolB · 47% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Pensacola school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Pensacola 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 Pensacola against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Pensacola suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 14% already work from home.
Retirees
The weather beats 76% of metro areas and it is quieter than 80%.
Common questions about living in Pensacola
Is Pensacola a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Pensacola ranks 235th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on state infrastructure, low taxes, and a strong job market, and lowest on disaster risk and car insurance costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Pensacola expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $289,903. The overall cost of living runs about 10% below the national average. Set against a $80,458 median income, cost of living beats 52% of metro areas.
Is Pensacola safe?
Yes, Pensacola is safer than 66% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $198 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Pensacola?
July highs average about 91 degrees, and January highs near 63 with lows near 45. That works out to about 124 pleasant days a year, more than 76% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Pensacola?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Navarre & Gulf Breeze, Pace, and Bagdad. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Pensacola good for families?
Schools beat 69% of metro areas, crime safety beats 66%, and childcare runs $837 a month.
Is Pensacola good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 52% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 77% of metro areas. About 14% of workers already work from home.
Compare Pensacola with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Pensacola. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Pensacola 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.
Pensacola detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Pensacola: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Pensacola: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Pensacola: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Pensacola: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Pensacola 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.