Best PlacesRio Grande Municipio, PR Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in Rio Grande Municipio, 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.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Rio Grande Municipio is unranked among counties under the default weighting. It scores highest on low property taxes by a wide margin, and the weather ranks lowest.


The best neighborhoods in Rio Grande Municipio

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Rio Grande Municipio area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

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 Rio Grande Municipio

The parts of Rio Grande Municipio, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the county.

#1

Palmer

Homes cost less.

WorseBetter
1st nationally
#2

Canovanas

It is quieter, though more homes sit empty.

WorseBetter
1st nationally
#3

Rio Grande

More households have young kids, though streets are more car-dependent.

WorseBetter
1st nationally

Scores across Rio Grande Municipio run from about the 1st to the 3rd percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.


Rio Grande Municipio's strengths and weaknesses

Top 1%Low property taxes
Top 3%Affordable childcare
Top 10%Big-city access
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Rio Grande Municipio with other counties.

Where Rio Grande Municipio ranks high

  • Low property taxBetter than 99% of counties
  • Cheap childcare$413 a month, better than 98% of counties
  • Big-city accessBetter than 94% of counties
  • Air qualityBetter than 87% of counties
  • WalkabilityBetter than 74% of counties

Where Rio Grande Municipio ranks low

  • Nice weatherabout 1 pleasant days a year, better than only 1% of counties
  • State infrastructureBetter than only 1% of counties
  • Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 1% of counties
  • Disaster safetyBetter than only 1% of counties
  • Household income$32,371 median, better than only 1% of counties

What it costs to buy a home in Rio Grande Municipio

A household needs to earn about $32,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Rio Grande Municipio home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $32,371, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$32,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$750
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $137,215 home
Median rent
$575
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$700
Property tax$5
Homeowners insurance$46

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 Rio Grande Municipio's effective rate of 0.04%, 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 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Rio Grande Municipio

Rio Grande Municipio runs older than the country.

Median age
47
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
24%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.7
near the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1815%
18 to 3422%
35 to 4920%
50 to 6420%
65 and older24%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Rio Grande Municipio.


Who works in Rio Grande Municipio, and how

Work in Rio Grande Municipio centers on retail trade and hospitality & food. Unemployment sits above the national rate.

Work from home
8%
below the national average
Unemployment
6.3%
above the national average

Largest industries

Retail trade12%
Hospitality & food11%
Health care & social10%
Public administration9%
Education9%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 89%
  • Work from home 8%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 3%

Life in Rio Grande Municipio

The coast is about 6 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Rio Grande Municipio, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
194
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 41.2 per 10,000 residents, more than 39% of counties
Coffee shops
22
about 4.7 per 10,000 residents, more than 44% of counties
To the coast
6 min
drive to the nearest ocean beaches

Is Rio Grande Municipio growing, and who is moving in?

Rio Grande Municipio has lost about 12% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from the rest of the San Juan, PR metro.

Population growth
-12%
over the decade, vs about 6% nationally
Population
48,025
down from 54,278
Population by year. Source: U.S. Census Population Estimates Program.

Where new residents come from

The rest of the San Juan, PR metro1,240 / yr
Vieques Municipio, Puerto Rico185 / yr
Orlando, FL100 / yr
Ponce, PR89 / yr
Providence, RI86 / yr

Where people leaving Rio Grande Municipio go

The rest of the San Juan, PR metro1,381 / yr
Lakeland, FL302 / yr
Cleveland, OH134 / yr
Greenville, SC98 / yr
Aguadilla, PR84 / yr

Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.


What the weather is like in Rio Grande Municipio, month by month

Rio Grande Municipio sees roughly 1 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 85, with lows near 73. No month averages between 55 and 75 degrees.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January85°78°73°
April87°79°74°
July90°83°78°
October90°83°78°

Flying in and out of Rio Grande Municipio

Luis Munoz Marin International sits about 12 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 6.7 million passengers in 2025, with 88 nonstop destinations.

Nearest airport
SJU
Luis Munoz Marin International, about 12 miles
Airport size
Medium hub
38th-busiest in the US, 88 nonstop destinations
Average drive
18 min
from the area, with no traffic

Rio Grande Municipio 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 Rio Grande Municipio against counties nationally.


Who Rio Grande Municipio suits

Families

Weigh schools and safety yourself on the map to find the right areas.

See the families priority ↑

Remote workers

8% already work from home.

See the remote-work priority ↑

Retirees

Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.

See the retirees priority ↑


Common questions about living in Rio Grande Municipio

Is Rio Grande Municipio a good place to live?

It scores highest on low property taxes, affordable childcare, and big-city access, and lowest on the weather and state infrastructure. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Rio Grande Municipio expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $137,215. Set against a $32,371 median income, cost of living beats 50% of counties.

Is Rio Grande Municipio safe?

Rio Grande Municipio is safer than 4% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $676 per resident a year.

What is the weather like in Rio Grande Municipio?

July highs average about 90 degrees, and January highs near 85 with lows near 73. That works out to about 1 pleasant days a year, more than 0% of counties.

What are the best neighborhoods in Rio Grande Municipio?

Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Palmer, Canovanas, and Rio Grande. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.



Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Rio Grande Municipio. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Rio Grande Municipio 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.

Rio Grande Municipio detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Rio Grande Municipio: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Rio Grande Municipio: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Rio Grande Municipio: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Rio Grande Municipio: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Rio Grande Municipio detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
  3. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  4. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  5. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  6. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  7. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  8. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  9. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  10. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  11. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  12. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  13. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.