Best PlacesPort St. Joe, FL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Port St. Joe, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Port St. Joe ranks 38,558th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on state infrastructure by a wide margin, and summer heat is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Port St. Joe
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.
Port St. Joe's strengths and weaknesses
Where Port St. Joe ranks high
- State infrastructureBetter than 99% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 96% of towns
- Short commute18.3 minutes each way, better than 92% of towns
- BikingBetter than 92% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 88% of towns
Where Port St. Joe ranks low
- Heat safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 2% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 3% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 7% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 9% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Port St. Joe
A household needs to earn about $83,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Port St. Joe home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $64,641, 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 Port St. Joe's effective rate of 0.56%, 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 Port St. Joe
Port St. Joe runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Port St. Joe.
Who works in Port St. Joe, and how
Work in Port St. Joe centers on retail trade and health care & social. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 86%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Port St. Joe
Port St. Joe has more restaurants and bars per resident than 94% of towns. The coast is about 1 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Port St. Joe and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Port St. Joe, month by month
Port St. Joe sees roughly 121 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 91 degrees. January highs sit near 67, with lows near 43. The comfortable stretch runs February through April and October through December.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 67° | 54° | 43° |
| April | 79° | 69° | 57° |
| July | 91° | 83° | 75° |
| October | 83° | 73° | 63° |
Flying in and out of Port St. Joe
The nearest airport, Northwest Florida Beaches International, is about 46 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Tampa International, about 212 miles away.
The best schools in and around Port St. Joe
Schools across Port St. Joe average a B, better than 68% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Tyndall AcademyA · 67% proficient
- Port St. Joe Elementary SchoolB+ · 52% proficient
- Wewahitchka Elementary SchoolC+ · 36% proficient
Top high schools
- Wewahitchka High SchoolB · 49% proficient
- Port St. Joe High SchoolB− · 44% proficient
- Rutherford High SchoolC · 30% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Port St. Joe school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Port St. Joe 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 Port St. Joe against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Port St. Joe
Is Port St. Joe a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Port St. Joe ranks 38,558th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on state infrastructure, low taxes, and short commutes, and lowest on summer heat and disaster risk. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Port St. Joe expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $327,715. The overall cost of living runs about 5% above the national average. Set against a $64,641 median income, cost of living beats 21% of towns.
Is Port St. Joe safe?
Port St. Joe is safer than 26% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $347 per resident a year.
Compare Port St. Joe with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Port St. Joe. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Port St. Joe 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.
Port St. Joe detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Port St. Joe: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Port St. Joe: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Port St. Joe: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Port St. Joe: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Port St. Joe 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.