Best PlacesSarasota, FL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Sarasota metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Distance to the water drives a lot of the difference between one part and the next. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Cullen Morgan, CC BY 4.0, via commons
Sarasota ranks 120th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 12 minutes away. Its strengths are state infrastructure and low taxes. The cost shows up in summer heat, empty homes, and disaster risk.
The best neighborhoods in the Sarasota 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 Sarasota
The towns and districts of the Sarasota 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.
Myakka City
Incomes run higher, local pay stretches further, and more adults hold degrees.
Laurel, Osprey & Nokomis
Schools score higher, though fewer households have young kids.
Downtown Sarasota
Biking is better and fewer homes sit empty.
Parrish & Ellenton
More residents vote and crime runs lower.
North Port & Venice
Prices have run up less, though streets are more car-dependent.
Bayshore Gardens, Longboat Key & Siesta Key
Transit reaches more jobs and commutes are shorter.
Bradenton, South Bradenton & Palmetto
Homes cost less, though health care is harder to reach.
Sarasota shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 2% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Sarasota's strengths and weaknesses
Sarasota lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. State infrastructure is the standout, in the top 3% of metro areas. Low taxes and fast internet follow.
The one real hole is summer heat, near the bottom of the country. Empty homes and disaster risk also cost it ground. That varies block to block rather than evenly, and the map below shows where.
Where Sarasota ranks high
- State infrastructureBetter than 97% of metro areas
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 96% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than 94% of metro areas
- Local economyBetter than 93% of metro areas
- Crime safetyBetter than 92% of metro areas
Where Sarasota ranks low
- Heat safetyBetter than only 2% of metro areas
- Low vacancyBetter than only 4% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 7% of metro areas
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 10% of metro areas
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 15% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Sarasota
A household needs to earn about $112,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Sarasota home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $86,269, 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 Sarasota's effective rate of 0.71%, 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 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Sarasota
Sarasota 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 Sarasota.
Who works in Sarasota, and how
Work in Sarasota centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 78%
- Work from home 17%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Sarasota
Sarasota has less late-night activity than most metro areas. The coast is about 12 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Sarasota and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Sarasota growing, and who is moving in?
Sarasota has grown about 25% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Tampa, FL.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Sarasota go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Sarasota, month by month
Sarasota sees roughly 156 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 74, with lows near 51. The comfortable stretch runs November through April.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 74° | 62° | 51° |
| April | 85° | 74° | 64° |
| July | 92° | 83° | 76° |
| October | 88° | 77° | 70° |
Flying in and out of Sarasota
The nearest airport, Sarasota/Bradenton International, is about 7 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Tampa International, about 45 miles away.
The best schools in and around Sarasota
Schools across Sarasota average a B+, better than 85% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Ashton Elementary SchoolA+ · 87% proficient
- Palmetto Charter SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
- Gilbert W Mcneal Elementary SchoolA+ · 80% proficient
Top middle schools
- Sarasota Middle SchoolA+ · 78% proficient
- R. Dan Nolan Middle SchoolA+ · 73% proficient
- Student Leadership AcademyA+ · 70% proficient
Top high schools
- Suncoast Polytechnical High SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
- State College Of Florida Collegiate SchoolA+ · 82% proficient
- Venice Senior High SchoolA · 69% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Sarasota school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Sarasota 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 Sarasota against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Sarasota suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 17% already work from home.
Retirees
The weather beats 89% of metro areas, health care access beats 87%, and it is quieter than 64%.
Common questions about living in Sarasota
Is Sarasota a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Sarasota ranks 120th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on state infrastructure, low taxes, and fast internet, and lowest on summer heat and empty homes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Sarasota expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $432,452. The overall cost of living runs about 3% below the national average. Set against a $86,269 median income, cost of living beats 63% of metro areas.
Is Sarasota safe?
Yes, Sarasota is safer than 92% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $152 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Sarasota?
July highs average about 92 degrees, and January highs near 74 with lows near 51. That works out to about 156 pleasant days a year, more than 89% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Sarasota?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Myakka City, Laurel, Osprey & Nokomis, and Downtown Sarasota. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Sarasota good for families?
Schools beat 85% of metro areas, crime safety beats 92%, and childcare runs $931 a month.
Is Sarasota good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 63% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 94% of metro areas. About 17% of workers already work from home.
Compare Sarasota with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Sarasota. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Sarasota 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.
Sarasota detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Sarasota: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Sarasota: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Sarasota: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Sarasota: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Sarasota 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.