Best PlacesSurprise, IN 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 21,496th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. Taxes pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on cheap car insurance.
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.
Surprise's strengths and weaknesses
Where Surprise ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 88% of towns
- Short commute20.7 minutes each way, better than 85% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 80% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 79% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 77% of towns
Where Surprise ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 9% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 15% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 73 pleasant days a year, better than only 32% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 38% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Surprise
A household needs to earn about $46,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Surprise home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $75,844, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
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 0.54%, 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 Surprise
Surprise's age mix sits close to the national median.
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 manufacturing and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 89%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 1%
Life in Surprise
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Surprise.
What the weather is like in Surprise, month by month
Surprise sees roughly 73 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 38, with lows near 24. The comfortable stretch runs April through June and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 38° | 31° | 24° |
| April | 64° | 55° | 43° |
| July | 84° | 77° | 66° |
| October | 68° | 58° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Surprise
Indianapolis International sits about 54 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 5.2 million passengers in 2025, with 92 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Surprise
Schools across Surprise average a B−, better than 52% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Cortland Elementary SchoolB− · 40% proficient
- Brownstown Elementary SchoolC+ · 37% proficient
Top middle schools
- Brownstown Central Middle SchoolB · 43% proficient
- Seymour Middle SchoolD+ · 26% proficient
Top high schools
- Brownstown Central High SchoolB− · 45% proficient
- Seymour Senior High SchoolB− · 45% 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 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Surprise
Is Surprise a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Surprise ranks 21,496th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, short commutes, and state infrastructure, and lowest on taxes and cell coverage. 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 $181,199. The overall cost of living runs about 8% below the national average. Set against a $75,844 median income, cost of living beats 54% of towns.
Is Surprise safe?
Surprise is safer than 47% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $268 per resident a year.
Compare Surprise with other towns
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.