Best PlacesShawnee, CO Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Shawnee, 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.
Shawnee ranks 18,063rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on heat safety by a wide margin, and air quality ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Shawnee
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.
Shawnee's strengths and weaknesses
Where Shawnee ranks high
- Heat safetyBetter than 99% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 96% of towns
- Household income$122,832 median, better than 94% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 94% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 92% of towns
Where Shawnee ranks low
- Air qualityBetter than only 1% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,503 a month, better than only 3% of towns
- Short commute39.9 minutes each way, better than only 5% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 7% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 9% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Shawnee
A household needs to earn about $144,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Shawnee home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $122,832, 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 Shawnee's effective rate of 0.42%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Shawnee
Shawnee 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 Shawnee.
Who works in Shawnee, and how
Work in Shawnee centers on professional & technical and education. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 60%
- Work from home 39%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Shawnee
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Shawnee.
What the weather is like in Shawnee, month by month
Shawnee sees roughly 123 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 68 degrees. January highs sit near 28, with lows near 14. The comfortable stretch runs July.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 28° | 20° | 14° |
| April | 42° | 32° | 25° |
| July | 68° | 56° | 48° |
| October | 49° | 38° | 31° |
Flying in and out of Shawnee
Denver International sits about 56 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 40.1 million passengers in 2025, with 250 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Shawnee
Schools across Shawnee average a B, better than 67% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Deer Creek Elementary SchoolB− · 43% proficient
Top middle schools
- Fitzsimmons Middle SchoolB+ · 50% proficient
Top high schools
- Platte Canyon High SchoolB · 47% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Shawnee school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Shawnee 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 Shawnee against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Shawnee
Is Shawnee a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Shawnee ranks 18,063rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on heat safety, population health, and high incomes, and lowest on air quality and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Shawnee expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $582,050. The overall cost of living runs about 4% above the national average. Set against a $122,832 median income, cost of living beats 92% of towns.
Is Shawnee safe?
Shawnee is safer than 28% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $553 per resident a year.
Compare Shawnee with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Shawnee. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Shawnee 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.
Shawnee detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Shawnee: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Shawnee: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Shawnee: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Shawnee: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Shawnee 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.