Best PlacesPeoria, AZ Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Peoria, 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.
Peoria ranks 60th of 445 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It does not top any single list, but it lands above the national middle on low property taxes and a strong job market. The weaker spots are tree cover, summer heat, and air quality.
The best neighborhoods in Peoria
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 Peoria
The parts of Peoria, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the city.
Desert Hills
More households have young kids, local pay stretches further, and incomes run higher.
Westwing Mountain
More adults hold degrees and heat risk is lower.
Vistancia
More residents vote, though prices have run up more.
Camino Lago, Camino Lago South & Ventana Lakes
Crime runs lower, though transit reaches fewer jobs.
Peacock Village
Health care is easier to reach, though more homes sit empty.
Alta Loma & Downtown Peoria
Biking is better, though it is noisier.
Scores across Peoria run from about the 17th to the 99th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Peoria's strengths and weaknesses
Peoria ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Low property taxes, a strong job market, and low disaster risk carry most of that.
The one real hole is tree cover, near the bottom of the country. Summer heat and air quality also cost it ground. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Peoria ranks high
- Low property taxBetter than 96% of cities
- Local economyBetter than 94% of cities
- Disaster safetyBetter than 93% of cities
- School gradeB+, better than 90% of cities
- Crime safetyBetter than 87% of cities
Where Peoria ranks low
- Tree shadeBetter than only 4% of cities
- Heat safetyBetter than only 4% of cities
- Air qualityBetter than only 10% of cities
- WalkabilityBetter than only 12% of cities
- Internet speedBetter than only 21% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Peoria
A household needs to earn about $123,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Peoria home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $109,160, 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 Peoria'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, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Peoria
Peoria'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 Peoria.
Who works in Peoria, and how
Work in Peoria centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 74%
- Work from home 23%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Peoria
Peoria has more restaurants and bars per resident than 66% of cities and more parkland per resident than 81% of cities. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Peoria and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Peoria, month by month
Peoria sees roughly 168 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 108 degrees. January highs sit near 66, with lows near 43. The comfortable stretch runs November through March.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 66° | 57° | 43° |
| April | 87° | 77° | 60° |
| July | 108° | 99° | 87° |
| October | 89° | 79° | 63° |
Flying in and out of Peoria
Phoenix Sky Harbor International sits about 20 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 25.2 million passengers in 2025, with 177 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Peoria
Schools across Peoria average a B+, better than 90% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Basis Peoria PrimaryA+ · 77% proficient
- Great Hearts Academies - Archway GlendaleA+ · 75% proficient
- Peoria Traditional SchoolA+ · 73% proficient
Top middle schools
- Hillcrest Middle SchoolA− · 55% proficient
Top high schools
- Basis PeoriaA+ · 81% proficient
- Great Hearts Academies - Glendale PrepA− · 65% proficient
- Mountain Ridge High SchoolB+ · 53% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Peoria school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Peoria 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 Peoria against the other 444 cities.
Who Peoria suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 85% of cities and 23% already work from home.
Retirees
The weather beats 79% of cities, health care access beats 79%, and it is quieter than 64%.
Common questions about living in Peoria
Is Peoria a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Peoria ranks 60th of 445 cities. It scores highest on low property taxes, a strong job market, and low disaster risk, and lowest on tree cover and summer heat. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Peoria expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $494,242. The overall cost of living runs about 2% below the national average. Set against a $109,160 median income, cost of living beats 85% of cities.
Is Peoria safe?
Yes, Peoria is safer than 87% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $282 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Peoria?
July highs average about 108 degrees, and January highs near 66 with lows near 43. That works out to about 168 pleasant days a year, more than 79% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Peoria?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Desert Hills, Westwing Mountain, and Vistancia. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Peoria good for families?
Schools beat 90% of cities, crime safety beats 87%, and childcare runs $1,109 a month.
Is Peoria good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 85% of cities, though advertised internet speeds beat only 21% of cities. About 23% of workers already work from home.
Compare Peoria with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Peoria. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Peoria 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.
Peoria detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Peoria: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Peoria: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Peoria: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Peoria: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Peoria 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.