Best PlacesShelby County, TN Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in Shelby County, 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.
Shelby County ranks 1,946th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on crime and civic engagement. It does better on transit, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in Shelby County
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 Shelby County
The parts of Shelby County, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the county.
Cordova, Bartlett & Arlington
Local pay stretches further, incomes run higher, and crime runs lower.
Collierville & Germantown
More adults hold degrees, though homes cost more.
Memphis
Tree cover is thicker and transit reaches more jobs.
Millington
More households have young kids, though schools score lower.
Shelby County shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 1% of the country and others in the top 4%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Shelby County's strengths and weaknesses
Shelby County lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Transit, state finances, and biking carry most of that.
The one real hole is crime, near the bottom of the country. Civic engagement and noise 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 Shelby County ranks high
- TransitBetter than 95% of counties
- State fiscal healthBetter than 94% of counties
- BikingBetter than 86% of counties
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 86% of counties
- Cell coverageBetter than 85% of counties
Where Shelby County ranks low
- Crime safetyBetter than only 2% of counties
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 10% of counties
- QuietBetter than only 13% of counties
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 13% of counties
- School gradeD+, better than only 17% of counties
What it costs to buy a home in Shelby County
A household needs to earn about $68,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Shelby County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $78,527, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
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 Shelby County's effective rate of 0.99%, 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 6 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Shelby County
Shelby County runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Shelby County.
Who works in Shelby County, and how
Work in Shelby County centers on health care & social and transportation & warehousing. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 85%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Shelby County
Shelby County has more parkland per resident than 70% of counties and less late-night activity than most counties. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Shelby County and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Shelby County growing, and who is moving in?
Shelby County has lost about 3% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from the rest of the Memphis, TN metro.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Shelby County go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Shelby County, month by month
Shelby County sees roughly 69 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 93 degrees. January highs sit near 54, with lows near 32. The comfortable stretch runs March through May and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 54° | 42° | 32° |
| April | 75° | 63° | 51° |
| July | 93° | 83° | 74° |
| October | 79° | 66° | 54° |
Flying in and out of Shelby County
Memphis International sits about 8 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 2.4 million passengers in 2025, with 78 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Shelby County
Schools across Shelby County average a D+, better than 17% of counties.
Top elementary schools
- Crosswind Elementary SchoolA+ · 81% proficient
- Dogwood Elementary SchoolA+ · 80% proficient
- Farmington Elementary SchoolA+ · 77% proficient
Top middle schools
- Maxine Smith Steam AcademyA+ · 68% proficient
- Arlington MiddleA · 65% proficient
- Houston Middle SchoolA · 63% proficient
Top high schools
- Middle College HighA · 70% proficient
- Houston High SchoolA · 68% proficient
- Arlington HighA− · 64% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Shelby County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Shelby County 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 Shelby County against the other 3,143 counties.
Who Shelby County suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 86% of counties, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 11% already work from home.
Retirees
Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.
Common questions about living in Shelby County
Is Shelby County a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Shelby County ranks 1,946th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on transit, state finances, and biking, and lowest on crime and civic engagement. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Shelby County expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $253,834. The overall cost of living runs about 19% below the national average. Set against a $78,527 median income, cost of living beats 86% of counties.
Is Shelby County safe?
Shelby County is safer than 2% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $1,360 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Shelby County?
July highs average about 93 degrees, and January highs near 54 with lows near 32. That works out to about 69 pleasant days a year, more than 18% of counties.
What are the best neighborhoods in Shelby County?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Cordova, Bartlett & Arlington, Collierville & Germantown, and Memphis. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Shelby County good for families?
Schools beat 17% of counties, crime safety beats 2%, and childcare runs $811 a month.
Is Shelby County good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 86% of counties, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 83% of counties. About 11% of workers already work from home.
Compare Shelby County with other counties
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Shelby County. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Shelby County 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.
Shelby County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Shelby County: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Shelby County: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Shelby County: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Shelby County: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Shelby County 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.