Best PlacesPrescott, AZ Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Prescott metro, 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.
Photo by randybailey, Unsplash License, via unsplash
Prescott ranks 236th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It does not top any single list, but it lands above the national middle on low property taxes and the weather. The weaker spots are internet speeds, the cost of living against local pay, and air quality.
The best neighborhoods in the Prescott 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 Prescott
The towns and districts of the Prescott 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.
Williamson & Bagdad
Incomes run higher, local pay stretches further, and more adults hold degrees.
Prescott Valley & Prescott
Fewer homes sit empty and more households have young kids.
Congress
Tree cover is thicker, though heat risk is higher.
Cottonwood, Sedona & Big Park
Biking is better, though prices have run up more.
Verde Village, Camp Verde & Lake Montezuma
Homes cost less.
Chino Valley
Commutes are longer.
Dewey, Black Canyon City & Cordes Lakes
Disaster risk is higher and health outcomes score lower.
Prescott shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 4% of the country and others in the top 2%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Prescott's strengths and weaknesses
Prescott lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Low property taxes, the weather, and a strong job market carry most of that.
The one real hole is internet speeds, near the bottom of the country. The cost of living against local pay and air quality also cost it ground. The detail is below, and the map is where it turns into a choice of neighborhood rather than just a place.
Where Prescott ranks high
- Low property taxBetter than 96% of metro areas
- Nice weatherabout 158 pleasant days a year, better than 90% of metro areas
- Local economyBetter than 89% of metro areas
- QuietBetter than 85% of metro areas
- Voter turnoutBetter than 85% of metro areas
Where Prescott ranks low
- Internet speedBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 2% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than only 5% of metro areas
- WalkabilityBetter than only 10% of metro areas
- School gradeC−, better than only 12% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Prescott
A household needs to earn about $110,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Prescott home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $73,350, 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 Prescott's effective rate of 0.40%, 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 Prescott
Prescott 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 Prescott.
Who works in Prescott, and how
Work in Prescott 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 78%
- Work from home 16%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Prescott
Prescott has less parkland per resident than most metro areas and less late-night activity than most metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Prescott and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Prescott growing, and who is moving in?
Prescott has grown about 16% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Phoenix, AZ.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Prescott go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Prescott, month by month
Prescott sees roughly 158 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 93 degrees. January highs sit near 55, with lows near 24. The comfortable stretch runs April through June and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 55° | 38° | 24° |
| April | 72° | 56° | 38° |
| July | 93° | 78° | 63° |
| October | 76° | 58° | 42° |
Flying in and out of Prescott
The nearest airport, Prescott Regional/Ernest A Love Field, is about 7 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Phoenix Sky Harbor International, about 82 miles away.
The best schools in and around Prescott
Schools across Prescott average a C−, better than 12% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Liberty Traditional SchoolB+ · 55% proficient
- Abia Judd Elementary SchoolB+ · 54% proficient
- Taylor Hicks SchoolB · 45% proficient
Top middle schools
- Prescott Mile High Middle SchoolC · 34% proficient
- Bradshaw Mountain Middle SchoolC · 32% proficient
- Heritage Middle SchoolC− · 28% proficient
Top high schools
- Tri-city College PrepB · 50% proficient
- Prescott High SchoolC · 31% proficient
- Seligman High SchoolD+ · 25% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Prescott school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Prescott 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 Prescott against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Prescott suits
Families
Schools land around the 12th percentile and crime safety beats 82%.
Retirees
The weather beats 90% of metro areas, health care access beats 67%, and it is quieter than 85%.
Common questions about living in Prescott
Is Prescott a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Prescott ranks 236th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on low property taxes, the weather, and a strong job market, and lowest on internet speeds 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 Prescott expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $443,547. The overall cost of living runs about 11% above the national average. Set against a $73,350 median income, cost of living beats 2% of metro areas.
Is Prescott safe?
Yes, Prescott is safer than 82% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $283 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Prescott?
July highs average about 93 degrees, and January highs near 55 with lows near 24. That works out to about 158 pleasant days a year, more than 90% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Prescott?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Williamson & Bagdad, Prescott Valley & Prescott, and Congress. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Prescott good for families?
Schools beat 12% of metro areas, crime safety beats 82%, and childcare runs $924 a month.
Is Prescott good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 2% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 1% of metro areas. About 16% of workers already work from home.
Compare Prescott with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Prescott. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Prescott 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.
Prescott detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Prescott: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Prescott: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Prescott: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Prescott: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Prescott 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.