Best PlacesTallahassee, FL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Tallahassee metro, 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.
Photo by UrbanTallahassee, CC BY-SA 3.0, via commons
Tallahassee ranks 213th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It does not top any single list, but it lands above the national middle on state infrastructure and low taxes. The weaker spots are car insurance costs, summer heat, and disaster risk.
The best neighborhoods in the Tallahassee metro
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 Tallahassee
The towns and districts of the Tallahassee metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Miccosukee Cpo & Monticello
Local pay stretches further, incomes run higher, and schools score higher.
Wakulla
It is quieter and crime runs lower.
Crawfordville
Biking is worse and fewer adults hold degrees.
Downtown Tallahassee
Fewer households have young kids and prices have run up more.
Wakulla Springs
Homes cost less, though health outcomes score lower.
Midway
More homes sit empty and commutes are longer.
Quincy, Havana & Chattahoochee
Heat risk is higher and transit reaches fewer jobs.
Tallahassee shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 2% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Tallahassee's strengths and weaknesses
Tallahassee lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. State infrastructure is the standout, in the top 3% of metro areas. Low taxes and tree cover follow.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Car insurance costs, summer heat, and disaster risk hold the score down. Cost swings more from one part of Tallahassee to another than it does between Tallahassee and its neighbors, which the map below shows.
Where Tallahassee ranks high
- State infrastructureBetter than 97% of metro areas
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 96% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than 87% of metro areas
- QuietBetter than 87% of metro areas
- Educational attainmentBetter than 87% of metro areas
Where Tallahassee ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 11% of metro areas
- Heat safetyBetter than only 17% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 17% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than only 23% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than only 24% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Tallahassee
A household needs to earn about $71,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Tallahassee home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $74,550, 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 Tallahassee's effective rate of 0.73%, 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 Tallahassee
Tallahassee runs younger 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 Tallahassee.
Who works in Tallahassee, and how
Work in Tallahassee centers on public administration and education. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 80%
- Work from home 13%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Tallahassee
Tallahassee has more restaurants and bars per resident than 70% of metro areas and more parkland per resident than 66% of metro areas. The coast is about 51 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Tallahassee and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Tallahassee growing, and who is moving in?
Tallahassee has grown about 6% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Miami, FL.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Tallahassee go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Tallahassee, month by month
Tallahassee sees roughly 92 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 94 degrees. January highs sit near 68, with lows near 40. The comfortable stretch runs February through April and October through December.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 68° | 53° | 40° |
| April | 83° | 69° | 54° |
| July | 94° | 82° | 73° |
| October | 86° | 72° | 59° |
Flying in and out of Tallahassee
The nearest airport, Tallahassee International, is about 6 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Jacksonville International, about 154 miles away.
The best schools in and around Tallahassee
Schools across Tallahassee average a B−, better than 64% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Hawks Rise Elementary SchoolA+ · 82% proficient
- Desoto Trail Elementary SchoolA+ · 79% proficient
- Gilchrist Elementary SchoolA+ · 79% proficient
Top middle schools
- Deerlake Middle SchoolA+ · 75% proficient
- William J Montford Iii Middle SchoolA+ · 69% proficient
- Swift Creek Middle SchoolA · 59% proficient
Top high schools
- Lawton Chiles High SchoolA · 72% proficient
- Leon High SchoolA− · 62% proficient
- Liberty County High SchoolB+ · 57% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Tallahassee school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Tallahassee 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 Tallahassee against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Tallahassee suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 13% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Tallahassee
Is Tallahassee a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Tallahassee ranks 213th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on state infrastructure, low taxes, and tree cover, and lowest on car insurance costs and summer heat. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Tallahassee expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $275,504. The overall cost of living runs about 13% below the national average. Set against a $74,550 median income, cost of living beats 43% of metro areas.
Is Tallahassee safe?
Tallahassee is safer than 52% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $224 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Tallahassee?
July highs average about 94 degrees, and January highs near 68 with lows near 40. That works out to about 92 pleasant days a year, more than 53% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Tallahassee?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Miccosukee Cpo & Monticello, Wakulla, and Crawfordville. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Tallahassee good for families?
Schools beat 64% of metro areas, crime safety beats 52%, and childcare runs $748 a month.
Is Tallahassee good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 43% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 72% of metro areas. About 13% of workers already work from home.
Compare Tallahassee with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Tallahassee. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Tallahassee 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.
Tallahassee detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Tallahassee: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Tallahassee: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Tallahassee: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Tallahassee: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Tallahassee 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.