Best PlacesSurprise, AZ Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Surprise, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Surprise ranks 120th of 445 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It does not top any single list, but it lands above the national middle on low crime and a strong job market. The weaker spots are tree cover, summer heat, and walkability.
The best neighborhoods in Surprise
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.
The best areas in Surprise
The parts of Surprise, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the city.
Surprise Farms
Crime runs lower, schools score higher, and more adults hold degrees.
Sierra Montana
Local pay stretches further and incomes run higher.
Eastern Surprise
Homes cost less, though fewer residents vote.
Surprise shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 14% of the country and others in the top 5%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Surprise's strengths and weaknesses
Surprise lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Low crime is the standout, in the top 2% of cities. A strong job market and low property taxes follow.
The one real hole is tree cover, near the bottom of the country. Summer heat and walkability also cost it ground. That varies block to block rather than evenly, and the map below shows where.
Where Surprise ranks high
- Crime safetyBetter than 98% of cities
- Local economyBetter than 98% of cities
- Low property taxBetter than 96% of cities
- Disaster safetyBetter than 94% of cities
- Voter turnoutBetter than 86% of cities
Where Surprise ranks low
- Tree shadeBetter than only 2% of cities
- Heat safetyBetter than only 2% of cities
- WalkabilityBetter than only 7% of cities
- TransitBetter than only 11% of cities
- Air qualityBetter than only 12% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Surprise
A household needs to earn about $107,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Surprise home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $101,904; 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 Surprise'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, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Surprise
Surprise 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 Surprise.
Who works in Surprise, and how
Work in Surprise centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 76%
- Work from home 20%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Surprise
Surprise has more parkland per resident than 85% of cities. That concentrates in some parts of Surprise and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Surprise, month by month
Surprise sees roughly 137 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 109 degrees. January highs sit near 67, with lows near 40. The comfortable stretch runs February through April and November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 67° | 53° | 40° |
| April | 88° | 73° | 56° |
| July | 109° | 96° | 83° |
| October | 91° | 76° | 61° |
Flying in and out of Surprise
Phoenix Sky Harbor International sits about 26 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 25.2 million passengers in 2025, with 177 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Surprise
Schools across Surprise average a C+, better than 35% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Peoria Traditional SchoolA+ · 73% proficient
- Freedom Traditional AcademyA · 66% proficient
- Legacy Traditional School - West SurpriseA− · 59% proficient
Top middle schools
- Verrado Middle SchoolB+ · 49% proficient
- Sonoran Heights Middle SchoolB · 47% proficient
- Cimarron Springs Middle SchoolB · 47% proficient
Top high schools
- Boulder Creek High SchoolB · 47% proficient
- Highland PrepB− · 45% proficient
- Sunrise Mountain High SchoolB− · 42% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Surprise school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Surprise 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 Surprise against the other 444 cities.
Who Surprise suits
Families
Schools land around the 35th percentile and crime safety beats 98%.
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 79% of cities, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 20% already work from home.
Retirees
The weather beats 67% of cities, health care access beats 84%, and it is quieter than 71%.
Common questions about living in Surprise
Is Surprise a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Surprise ranks 120th of 445 cities. It scores highest on low crime, a strong job market, and low property taxes, and lowest on tree cover and summer heat. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Surprise expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $429,182. The overall cost of living runs about 5% below the national average. Set against a $101,904 median income, cost of living beats 79% of cities.
Is Surprise safe?
Yes, Surprise is safer than 98% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $215 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Surprise?
July highs average about 109 degrees, and January highs near 67 with lows near 40. That works out to about 137 pleasant days a year, more than 67% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Surprise?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Surprise Farms, Sierra Montana, and Eastern Surprise. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Surprise good for families?
Schools beat 35% of cities, crime safety beats 98%, and childcare runs $1,109 a month.
Is Surprise good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 79% of cities, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 72% of cities. About 20% of workers already work from home.
Compare Surprise with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Surprise. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Surprise 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.
Surprise detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Surprise: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Surprise: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Surprise: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Surprise: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Surprise 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.