Best PlacesSun City Center, FL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Sun City Center, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Sun City Center ranks 1,403rd of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on state infrastructure by a wide margin, and summer heat is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Sun City Center
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.
Sun City Center's strengths and weaknesses
Where Sun City Center ranks high
- State infrastructureBetter than 96% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 95% of cities
- Local economyBetter than 93% of cities
- Healthcare accessBetter than 89% of cities
- Crime safetyBetter than 87% of cities
Where Sun City Center ranks low
- Heat safetyBetter than only 2% of cities
- WalkabilityBetter than only 4% of cities
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 10% of cities
- Short commute33.2 minutes each way, better than only 10% of cities
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 13% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Sun City Center
A household needs to earn about $86,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Sun City Center home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $77,263; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Sun City Center's effective rate of 0.94%, 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 5 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Sun City Center
Sun City Center 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 Sun City Center.
Who works in Sun City Center, and how
Work in Sun City Center centers on retail trade and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 68%
- Work from home 28%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Sun City Center
The coast is about 16 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Sun City Center, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Sun City Center, month by month
Sun City Center sees roughly 114 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 72, with lows near 50. The comfortable stretch runs November through April.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 72° | 60° | 50° |
| April | 85° | 74° | 63° |
| July | 92° | 83° | 75° |
| October | 87° | 77° | 68° |
Flying in and out of Sun City Center
Tampa International sits about 21 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 12.1 million passengers in 2025, with 135 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Sun City Center
Schools across Sun City Center average a C+, better than 34% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Patricia Sullivan Metropolitan Ministries Partnership SchoolA− · 58% proficient
- Thompson ElementaryC+ · 39% proficient
- Cypress Creek Elementary SchoolC+ · 37% proficient
Top middle schools
- Shields Middle SchoolC− · 29% proficient
Top high schools
- Lennard High SchoolB− · 41% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Sun City Center school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Sun City Center 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 Sun City Center against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Sun City Center suits
Families
Schools land around the 34th percentile and crime safety beats 87%.
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 28% already work from home.
Retirees
The weather beats 67% of cities, health care access beats 89%, and it is quieter than 60%.
Common questions about living in Sun City Center
Is Sun City Center a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Sun City Center ranks 1,403rd of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on state infrastructure, low taxes, and a strong job market, and lowest on summer heat and walkability. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Sun City Center expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $323,022. The overall cost of living runs about 17% below the national average. Set against a $77,263 median income, cost of living beats 57% of cities.
Is Sun City Center safe?
Yes, Sun City Center is safer than 87% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $139 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Sun City Center?
July highs average about 92 degrees, and January highs near 72 with lows near 50. That works out to about 114 pleasant days a year, more than 67% of cities.
Is Sun City Center good for families?
Schools beat 34% of cities, crime safety beats 87%, and childcare runs $973 a month.
Compare Sun City Center with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Sun City Center. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Sun City Center 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.
Sun City Center detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Sun City Center: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Sun City Center: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Sun City Center: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Sun City Center: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Sun City Center 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.