Best PlacesSalt Lake City, UT Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Salt Lake City metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages hide a wide spread here, so the area matters as much as the address. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Garrett from Salt Lake City, CC BY 2.0, via commons
Salt Lake City ranks 25th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. Paychecks stretch further here than almost anywhere else: the median household brings in $108,335, everyday costs sit below the national average, and a strong job market ranks near the top of the country. The main drawbacks are noise, air quality, and tree cover.
The best neighborhoods in the Salt Lake City 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 Salt Lake City
The towns and districts of the Salt Lake City 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.
Sandy & Draper
Schools score higher, local pay stretches further, and more residents vote.
South Jordan, Riverton & Bluffdale
More households have young kids and incomes run higher.
Cottonwood Heights & Murray
More adults hold degrees and health care is easier to reach.
Herriman & Tooele
Crime runs lower, though transit reaches fewer jobs.
Kearns & Grantsville
Streets are more car-dependent and biking is worse.
Downtown Salt Lake City
Commutes are shorter, though more homes sit empty.
West Jordan, Taylorsville & Midvale
It is noisier.
Magna
Homes cost less.
West Valley City
Prices have run up more and disaster risk is higher.
Salt Lake City shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 8% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Salt Lake City's strengths and weaknesses
Salt Lake City ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Fast internet is the standout, in the top 1% of metro areas. Transit and biking follow.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Noise, air quality, and tree cover hold the score down. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Salt Lake City ranks high
- Internet speedBetter than 99% of metro areas
- TransitBetter than 98% of metro areas
- BikingBetter than 98% of metro areas
- Health outlookBetter than 97% of metro areas
- Low vacancyBetter than 96% of metro areas
Where Salt Lake City ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 8% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than only 10% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than only 16% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 20% of metro areas
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 22% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Salt Lake City
A household needs to earn about $138,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Salt Lake City home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $108,335, 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 Salt Lake City's effective rate of 0.52%, 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 Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City runs younger than the country, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Salt Lake City.
Who works in Salt Lake City, and how
Work in Salt Lake City centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 75%
- Work from home 19%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas and more late-night spots per resident than 91% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Salt Lake City and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Salt Lake City growing, and who is moving in?
Salt Lake City has grown about 13% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Provo, UT.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Salt Lake City go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Salt Lake City, month by month
Salt Lake City sees roughly 129 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 98 degrees. January highs sit near 42, with lows near 24. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 42° | 32° | 24° |
| April | 66° | 53° | 40° |
| July | 98° | 84° | 70° |
| October | 69° | 54° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City International sits about 6 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 13.4 million passengers in 2025, with 154 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Salt Lake City
Schools across Salt Lake City average a C+, better than 39% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Sunrise SchoolA+ · 80% proficient
- Howard R. Driggs SchoolA+ · 78% proficient
- Peruvian Park SchoolA+ · 77% proficient
Top middle schools
- Albion MiddleA+ · 70% proficient
- Draper Park MiddleA · 66% proficient
- Butler MiddleA · 65% proficient
Top high schools
- Academy For Math Engineering & ScienceA− · 62% proficient
- Itineris Early College HighA− · 62% proficient
- Skyline HighA− · 61% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Salt Lake City school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Salt Lake City 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 Salt Lake City against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Salt Lake City suits
Families
Schools land around the 39th percentile and crime safety beats 76%.
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 92% of metro areas, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 19% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Salt Lake City
Is Salt Lake City a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Salt Lake City ranks 25th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on fast internet, transit, and biking, and lowest on noise and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Salt Lake City expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $550,413. The overall cost of living runs about 2% below the national average. Set against a $108,335 median income, cost of living beats 92% of metro areas.
Is Salt Lake City safe?
Yes, Salt Lake City is safer than 76% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $357 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Salt Lake City?
July highs average about 98 degrees, and January highs near 42 with lows near 24. That works out to about 129 pleasant days a year, more than 79% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Salt Lake City?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Sandy & Draper, South Jordan, Riverton & Bluffdale, and Cottonwood Heights & Murray. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Salt Lake City good for families?
Schools beat 39% of metro areas, crime safety beats 76%, and childcare runs $929 a month.
Is Salt Lake City good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 92% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 99% of metro areas. About 19% of workers already work from home.
Compare Salt Lake City with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Salt Lake City. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Salt Lake City 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.
Salt Lake City detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Salt Lake City: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Salt Lake City: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Salt Lake City: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Salt Lake City: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Salt Lake City 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.