Best PlacesSanta Fe, NM Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Santa Fe metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Daniel Schwen, CC BY-SA 4.0, via commons
Santa Fe ranks 225th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on crime and air quality. It does better on low property taxes, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Santa Fe 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 Santa Fe
The towns and districts of the Santa Fe 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.
Eldorado at Santa Fe
More adults hold degrees, local pay stretches further, and health care is easier to reach.
Downtown Santa Fe
Biking is better, though it is noisier.
Edgewood & La Cienega
More households have young kids, though commutes are longer.
Espanola
More homes sit empty and schools score lower.
Santa Fe shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 8% of the country and others in the top 6%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Santa Fe's strengths and weaknesses
Santa Fe lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Low property taxes, the weather, and an educated workforce carry most of that.
The one real hole is crime, near the bottom of the country. Air quality and internet speeds also cost it ground. The detail is below, and the map is where it turns into a choice of neighborhood rather than just a place.
Where Santa Fe ranks high
- Low property taxBetter than 92% of metro areas
- Nice weatherabout 166 pleasant days a year, better than 92% of metro areas
- Educational attainmentBetter than 92% of metro areas
- Health outlookBetter than 89% of metro areas
- Heat safetyBetter than 83% of metro areas
Where Santa Fe ranks low
- Crime safetyBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than only 6% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than only 7% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than only 18% of metro areas
- State infrastructureBetter than only 30% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Santa Fe
A household needs to earn about $123,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Santa Fe home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $82,653, 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 Santa Fe's effective rate of 0.44%, 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 Santa Fe
Santa Fe 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 Santa Fe.
Who works in Santa Fe, and how
Work in Santa Fe centers on professional & technical and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, 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 Santa Fe
Santa Fe has more restaurants and bars per resident than 70% of metro areas and more late-night spots per resident than 75% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Santa Fe and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Santa Fe growing, and who is moving in?
Santa Fe has grown about 7% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Albuquerque, NM.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Santa Fe go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Santa Fe, month by month
Santa Fe sees roughly 166 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 47, with lows near 19. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 47° | 31° | 19° |
| April | 71° | 52° | 33° |
| July | 92° | 75° | 58° |
| October | 71° | 54° | 37° |
Flying in and out of Santa Fe
The nearest airport, Santa Fe Regional, is about 6 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Albuquerque International Sunport, about 55 miles away.
The best schools in and around Santa Fe
Schools across Santa Fe average a C+, better than 59% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Carlos Gilbert ElementaryA+ · 75% proficient
- El Dorado Community SchoolA+ · 75% proficient
- Wood-gormley ElementaryA · 65% proficient
Top high schools
- Mandela International Magnet (mims)A · 75% proficient
- Nm School For The ArtsA− · 60% proficient
- Santa Fe HighB+ · 58% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Santa Fe school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Santa Fe 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 Santa Fe against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Santa Fe suits
Retirees
The weather beats 92% of metro areas and it is quieter than 67%.
Common questions about living in Santa Fe
Is Santa Fe a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Santa Fe ranks 225th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on low property taxes, the weather, and an educated workforce, and lowest on crime and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Santa Fe expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $494,976. The overall cost of living runs about 2% below the national average. Set against a $82,653 median income, cost of living beats 49% of metro areas.
Is Santa Fe safe?
Santa Fe is safer than 1% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $827 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Santa Fe?
July highs average about 92 degrees, and January highs near 47 with lows near 19. That works out to about 166 pleasant days a year, more than 92% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Santa Fe?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Eldorado at Santa Fe, Downtown Santa Fe, and Edgewood & La Cienega. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Santa Fe good for families?
Schools beat 59% of metro areas, crime safety beats 1%, and childcare runs $933 a month.
Is Santa Fe good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 49% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 7% of metro areas. About 19% of workers already work from home.
Compare Santa Fe with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Santa Fe. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Santa Fe 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.
Santa Fe detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Santa Fe: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Santa Fe: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Santa Fe: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Santa Fe: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Santa Fe 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.