Best PlacesSun Valley, ID Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Sun Valley, 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.
Sun Valley ranks 1,556th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cheap car insurance by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Sun Valley
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 Valley's strengths and weaknesses
Where Sun Valley ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 98% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than 98% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 97% of towns
- BikingBetter than 97% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 97% of towns
Where Sun Valley ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 6% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 19% of towns
- Cheap childcare$973 a month, better than only 26% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Sun Valley
A household needs to earn about $305,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Sun Valley home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $123,025, 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 Sun Valley's effective rate of 0.45%, 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 Sun Valley
Sun Valley 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 Valley.
Who works in Sun Valley, and how
Work in Sun Valley centers on professional & technical and hospitality & food. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 70%
- Work from home 15%
- Transit, walk, or bike 16%
Life in Sun Valley
Sun Valley has more restaurants and bars per resident than 93% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Sun Valley and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Sun Valley, month by month
Sun Valley sees roughly 115 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 31, with lows near 16. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 31° | 23° | 16° |
| April | 55° | 43° | 33° |
| July | 86° | 70° | 54° |
| October | 58° | 45° | 35° |
Flying in and out of Sun Valley
The nearest airport, Friedman Memorial, is about 14 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Boise Air Trml/Gowen Field, about 94 miles away.
The best schools in and around Sun Valley
Schools across Sun Valley average a B+, better than 76% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Ernest Hemingway Steam SchoolA− · 59% proficient
- Mackay Elementary SchoolC · 35% proficient
- Challis Elementary SchoolD− · 15% proficient
Top high schools
- Wood River High SchoolB− · 41% proficient
- Mackay Jr/sr High SchoolC+ · 35% proficient
- Challis Jr/sr High SchoolD · 23% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Sun Valley school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Sun Valley 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 Valley against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Sun Valley
Is Sun Valley a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Sun Valley ranks 1,556th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, state finances, and a strong job market, and lowest on an overheated housing market and distance from a big city. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Sun Valley expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,227,117. The overall cost of living runs about 8% above the national average. Set against a $123,025 median income, cost of living beats 95% of towns.
Is Sun Valley safe?
Sun Valley is safer than 32% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $404 per resident a year.
Compare Sun Valley with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Sun Valley. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Sun Valley 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 Valley detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Sun Valley: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Sun Valley: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Sun Valley: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Sun Valley: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Sun Valley 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.