Best PlacesSouthwest Ranches, FL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Southwest Ranches, 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.
Southwest Ranches ranks 3,615th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on state infrastructure by a wide margin, and car insurance costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Southwest Ranches
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.
Southwest Ranches' strengths and weaknesses
Where Southwest Ranches ranks high
- State infrastructureBetter than 99% of towns
- Household income$171,742 median, better than 98% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 98% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 97% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 96% of towns
Where Southwest Ranches ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 2% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 4% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 4% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 20% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 22% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Southwest Ranches
A household needs to earn about $242,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Southwest Ranches home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $171,742, 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 Southwest Ranches' effective rate of 0.91%, 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 Southwest Ranches
Southwest Ranches runs older than the country, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Southwest Ranches.
Who works in Southwest Ranches, and how
Work in Southwest Ranches centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 76%
- Work from home 21%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Southwest Ranches
Southwest Ranches has more restaurants and bars per resident than 82% of towns and more parkland per resident than 92% of towns. The coast is about 23 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Southwest Ranches and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Southwest Ranches, month by month
Southwest Ranches sees roughly 77 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 93 degrees. January highs sit near 79, with lows near 59. The comfortable stretch runs November through March.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 79° | 68° | 59° |
| April | 87° | 77° | 69° |
| July | 93° | 85° | 77° |
| October | 88° | 80° | 73° |
Flying in and out of Southwest Ranches
Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International sits about 14 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 15.7 million passengers in 2025, with 180 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Southwest Ranches
Schools across Southwest Ranches average an A, better than 90% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Manatee Bay Elementary SchoolA+ · 74% proficient
- Franklin Academy Cooper CityA− · 60% proficient
- Hawkes Bluff Elementary SchoolA− · 60% proficient
Top middle schools
- Silver Trail Middle SchoolA · 62% proficient
- Nova Middle SchoolB · 47% proficient
Top high schools
- City/pembroke Pines Charter High SchoolA · 71% proficient
- West Broward High SchoolA− · 63% proficient
- Franklin Academy Pembroke Pines High SchoolB− · 44% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Southwest Ranches school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Southwest Ranches 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 Southwest Ranches against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Southwest Ranches
Is Southwest Ranches a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Southwest Ranches ranks 3,615th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on state infrastructure, high incomes, and population health, and lowest on car insurance costs and summer heat. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Southwest Ranches expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $911,051. The overall cost of living runs about 27% above the national average. Set against a $171,742 median income, cost of living beats 95% of towns.
Is Southwest Ranches safe?
Southwest Ranches is safer than 36% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $227 per resident a year.
Compare Southwest Ranches with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Southwest Ranches. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Southwest Ranches 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.
Southwest Ranches detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Southwest Ranches: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Southwest Ranches: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Southwest Ranches: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Southwest Ranches: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Southwest Ranches 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.