Best PlacesSiesta Key, FL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Siesta Key, 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.
Siesta Key ranks 5,817th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on health care access by a wide margin, and summer heat is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Siesta Key
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.
Siesta Key's strengths and weaknesses
Where Siesta Key ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 99% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 99% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 98% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 97% of towns
- BikingBetter than 97% of towns
Where Siesta Key ranks low
- Heat safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 4% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 4% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 6% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Siesta Key
A household needs to earn about $318,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Siesta Key home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $117,825, 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 Siesta Key's effective rate of 0.61%, 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 Siesta Key
Siesta Key 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 Siesta Key.
Who works in Siesta Key, and how
Work in Siesta Key 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 56%
- Work from home 42%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Siesta Key
Siesta Key has more restaurants and bars per resident than 93% of towns and more parkland per resident than 95% of towns. The coast is about 1 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Siesta Key and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Siesta Key, month by month
Siesta Key sees roughly 158 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 Siesta Key
The nearest airport, Sarasota/Bradenton International, is about 8 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Tampa International, about 48 miles away.
The best schools in and around Siesta Key
Schools across Siesta Key average an A, better than 92% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Phillippi Shores Elementary SchoolA+ · 75% proficient
Top middle schools
- Brookside Middle SchoolA · 60% proficient
Top high schools
- Riverview High SchoolA · 68% proficient
- Sarasota High SchoolA− · 63% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Siesta Key school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Siesta Key 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 Siesta Key against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Siesta Key
Is Siesta Key a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Siesta Key ranks 5,817th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on health care access, state infrastructure, and an educated workforce, and lowest on summer heat and disaster risk. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Siesta Key expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,247,422. The overall cost of living runs about 37% above the national average. Set against a $117,825 median income, cost of living beats 81% of towns.
Is Siesta Key safe?
Yes, Siesta Key is safer than 70% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $163 per resident a year.
Compare Siesta Key with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Siesta Key. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Siesta Key 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.
Siesta Key detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Siesta Key: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Siesta Key: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Siesta Key: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Siesta Key: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Siesta Key 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.