Best PlacesRustic, CO Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Rustic, 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.
Rustic ranks 32,594th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on quiet by a wide margin, and cell coverage ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Rustic
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.
Rustic's strengths and weaknesses
Where Rustic ranks high
- QuietBetter than 97% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 97% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 95% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 83% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 80% of towns
Where Rustic ranks low
- Cell coverageBetter than only 1% of towns
- Short commute47.6 minutes each way, better than only 1% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 1% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,660 a month, better than only 1% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 5% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Rustic
A household needs to earn about $192,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Rustic home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $83,934, 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 Rustic's effective rate of 0.45%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Rustic
Rustic 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 Rustic.
Who works in Rustic, and how
Work in Rustic centers on real estate and construction. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 60%
- Work from home 32%
- Transit, walk, or bike 8%
Life in Rustic
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Rustic.
What the weather is like in Rustic, month by month
Rustic sees roughly 85 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 81 degrees. January highs sit near 27, with lows near 3. The comfortable stretch runs June through August.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 27° | 15° | 3° |
| April | 53° | 37° | 23° |
| July | 81° | 61° | 42° |
| October | 58° | 39° | 24° |
Flying in and out of Rustic
The nearest airport, Laramie Regional, is about 47 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Denver International, about 78 miles away.
The best schools in and around Rustic
Schools across Rustic average a B, better than 70% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Traut Core Elementary SchoolA · 70% proficient
- Psd Mountain SchoolsB · 50% proficient
- Cache La Poudre Elementary SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
Top middle schools
- Kinard Core Knowledge Middle SchoolA · 64% proficient
- Cache La Poudre Middle SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
- Estes Park Middle SchoolD+ · 27% proficient
Top high schools
- Estes Park High SchoolB+ · 52% proficient
- Thompson Valley High SchoolB− · 42% proficient
- Poudre High SchoolB− · 41% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Rustic school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Rustic 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 Rustic against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Rustic
Is Rustic a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Rustic ranks 32,594th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on quiet, an educated workforce, and population health, and lowest on cell coverage and long commutes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Rustic expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $772,400. The overall cost of living runs about 12% above the national average. Set against a $83,934 median income, cost of living beats 57% of towns.
Is Rustic safe?
Rustic is safer than 49% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $479 per resident a year.
Compare Rustic with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Rustic. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Rustic 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.
Rustic detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Rustic: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Rustic: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Rustic: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Rustic: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Rustic 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.