Best PlacesRiviera Beach, MD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Riviera Beach, 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.
Riviera Beach ranks 9,897th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on big-city access by a wide margin, and taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Riviera Beach
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.
Riviera Beach's strengths and weaknesses
Where Riviera Beach ranks high
- Big-city accessBetter than 97% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 94% of towns
- Household income$113,713 median, better than 91% of towns
- BikingBetter than 91% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 90% of towns
Where Riviera Beach ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 1% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 57 pleasant days a year, better than only 4% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 8% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 8% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,268 a month, better than only 12% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Riviera Beach
A household needs to earn about $96,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Riviera Beach home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $113,713, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
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 Riviera Beach's effective rate of 0.82%, 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.
Who lives in Riviera Beach
Riviera Beach's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Riviera Beach.
Who works in Riviera Beach, and how
Work in Riviera Beach centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 90%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 1%
Life in Riviera Beach
The coast is about 2 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Riviera Beach, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Riviera Beach, month by month
Riviera Beach sees roughly 57 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 47, with lows near 26. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 47° | 36° | 26° |
| April | 71° | 57° | 44° |
| July | 92° | 80° | 69° |
| October | 73° | 60° | 48° |
Flying in and out of Riviera Beach
Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall sits about 8 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 12.3 million passengers in 2025, with 114 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Riviera Beach
Schools across Riviera Beach average a C, better than 30% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Sunset ElementaryC− · 30% proficient
- Monarch Global Academy Pcs Laurel CampusC− · 29% proficient
- Riviera Beach ElementaryD · 18% proficient
Top middle schools
- Northeast MiddleD · 20% proficient
Top high schools
- Severna Park HighA+ · 81% proficient
- Northeast HighB− · 43% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Riviera Beach school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Riviera Beach 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 Riviera Beach against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Riviera Beach
Is Riviera Beach a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Riviera Beach ranks 9,897th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on big-city access, walkability, and high incomes, and lowest on taxes and the weather. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Riviera Beach expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $364,726. The overall cost of living runs about 0% below the national average. Set against a $113,713 median income, cost of living beats 89% of towns.
Is Riviera Beach safe?
Yes, Riviera Beach is safer than 66% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $250 per resident a year.
Compare Riviera Beach with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Riviera Beach. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Riviera Beach 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.
Riviera Beach detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Riviera Beach: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Riviera Beach: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Riviera Beach: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Riviera Beach: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Riviera Beach 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.