Best PlacesRio Verde, AZ Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Rio Verde, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Rio Verde ranks 5,279th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on health care access by a wide margin, and air quality ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Rio Verde
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.
Rio Verde's strengths and weaknesses
Where Rio Verde ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 99% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 196 pleasant days a year, better than 99% of towns
- Household income$143,531 median, better than 97% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 96% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 96% of towns
Where Rio Verde ranks low
- Air qualityBetter than only 1% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 3% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 10% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,109 a month, better than only 16% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Rio Verde
A household needs to earn about $218,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Rio Verde home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $143,531, 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 Rio Verde's effective rate of 0.40%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Rio Verde
Rio Verde 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 Rio Verde.
Who works in Rio Verde, and how
Work in Rio Verde centers on retail trade and professional & technical. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 46%
- Work from home 50%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Rio Verde
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Rio Verde.
What the weather is like in Rio Verde, month by month
Rio Verde sees roughly 196 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 108 degrees. January highs sit near 67, with lows near 41. The comfortable stretch runs February through April, November, and December.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 67° | 54° | 41° |
| April | 87° | 73° | 58° |
| July | 108° | 96° | 83° |
| October | 90° | 76° | 62° |
Flying in and out of Rio Verde
Phoenix Sky Harbor International sits about 28 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 Rio Verde
Schools across Rio Verde average a B−, better than 59% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Franklin At Brimhall ElementaryA+ · 83% proficient
- Black Mountain Elementary SchoolA · 65% proficient
- Copper Ridge SchoolA · 64% proficient
Top middle schools
- Franklin Junior High SchoolA+ · 78% proficient
- Sonoran Trails Middle SchoolB+ · 49% proficient
- Fountain Hills Middle SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
Top high schools
- Cactus Shadows High SchoolB · 48% proficient
- Fountain Hills High SchoolC+ · 35% proficient
- East Valley AcademyD+ · 25% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Rio Verde school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Rio Verde 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 Verde against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Rio Verde
Is Rio Verde a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Rio Verde ranks 5,279th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on health care access, the weather, and high incomes, and lowest on air quality and summer heat. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Rio Verde expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $882,493. The overall cost of living runs about 13% above the national average. Set against a $143,531 median income, cost of living beats 96% of towns.
Is Rio Verde safe?
Yes, Rio Verde is safer than 58% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $302 per resident a year.
Compare Rio Verde with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Rio Verde. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Rio Verde 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 Verde detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Rio Verde: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Rio Verde: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Rio Verde: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Rio Verde: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Rio Verde 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.