Best PlacesSugarloaf, CO Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Sugarloaf, 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.
Sugarloaf ranks 20,446th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on heat safety by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Sugarloaf
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.
Sugarloaf's strengths and weaknesses
Where Sugarloaf ranks high
- Heat safetyBetter than 99% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 99% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 99% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 99% of towns
- Household income$140,735 median, better than 96% of towns
Where Sugarloaf ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,834 a month, better than only 1% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 1% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 5% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 6% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 7% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Sugarloaf
A household needs to earn about $220,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Sugarloaf home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $140,735, 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 Sugarloaf's effective rate of 0.54%, 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 Sugarloaf
Sugarloaf's age mix sits close to the national median, 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 Sugarloaf.
Who works in Sugarloaf, and how
Work in Sugarloaf centers on health care & social and professional & technical. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 51%
- Work from home 44%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Sugarloaf
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Sugarloaf.
What the weather is like in Sugarloaf, month by month
Sugarloaf sees roughly 77 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 70 degrees. January highs sit near 29, with lows near 12. The comfortable stretch runs July.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 29° | 20° | 12° |
| April | 43° | 31° | 22° |
| July | 70° | 56° | 43° |
| October | 50° | 37° | 27° |
Flying in and out of Sugarloaf
Denver International sits about 42 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 Sugarloaf
Schools across Sugarloaf average a C+, better than 50% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Pioneer Bilingual Elementary SchoolC− · 30% proficient
Top middle schools
- Casey Middle SchoolC · 35% proficient
Top high schools
- New Vista High SchoolB · 50% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Sugarloaf school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Sugarloaf 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 Sugarloaf against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Sugarloaf
Is Sugarloaf a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Sugarloaf ranks 20,446th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on heat safety, population health, and an educated workforce, and lowest on childcare costs and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Sugarloaf expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $870,497. The overall cost of living runs about 32% above the national average. Set against a $140,735 median income, cost of living beats 88% of towns.
Is Sugarloaf safe?
Sugarloaf is safer than 8% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $815 per resident a year.
Compare Sugarloaf with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Sugarloaf. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Sugarloaf 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.
Sugarloaf detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Sugarloaf: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Sugarloaf: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Sugarloaf: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Sugarloaf: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Sugarloaf 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.