Best PlacesPiedra, CO Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Piedra, 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.
Piedra ranks 34,163rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on quiet by a wide margin, and internet speeds rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Piedra
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.
Piedra's strengths and weaknesses
Where Piedra ranks high
- QuietBetter than 97% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 161 pleasant days a year, better than 95% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 93% of towns
- Short commute19.7 minutes each way, better than 89% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 87% of towns
Where Piedra ranks low
- Internet speedBetter than only 1% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 3% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 3% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 5% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 7% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Piedra
A household needs to earn about $118,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Piedra home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $70,245, 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 Piedra's effective rate of 0.33%, 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 Piedra
Piedra runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Piedra.
Who works in Piedra, and how
Work in Piedra centers on retail trade and construction. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 78%
- Work from home 19%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Piedra
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Piedra.
What the weather is like in Piedra, month by month
Piedra sees roughly 161 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 38, with lows near 13. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 38° | 25° | 13° |
| April | 60° | 44° | 29° |
| July | 84° | 67° | 51° |
| October | 63° | 47° | 32° |
Flying in and out of Piedra
The nearest airport, Durango-La Plata County, is about 21 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Albuquerque International Sunport, about 157 miles away.
The best schools in and around Piedra
Schools across Piedra average a D+, better than 11% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Bayfield Intermediate SchoolD · 20% proficient
- Pagosa Springs Elementary SchoolD− · 15% proficient
- Ignacio Elementary SchoolD− · 11% proficient
Top middle schools
- Bayfield Middle SchoolD+ · 25% proficient
- Pagosa Springs Middle SchoolD+ · 25% proficient
- Ignacio Middle SchoolF · 12% proficient
Top high schools
- Pagosa Springs High SchoolC+ · 40% proficient
- Bayfield High SchoolC+ · 37% proficient
- Ignacio High SchoolF · 7% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Piedra school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Piedra 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 Piedra against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Piedra
Is Piedra a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Piedra ranks 34,163rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on quiet, the weather, and low property taxes, and lowest on internet speeds and biking. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Piedra expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $480,979. The overall cost of living runs about 1% below the national average. Set against a $70,245 median income, cost of living beats 29% of towns.
Is Piedra safe?
Piedra is safer than 34% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $516 per resident a year.
Compare Piedra with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Piedra. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Piedra 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.
Piedra detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Piedra: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Piedra: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Piedra: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Piedra: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Piedra 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.