Best PlacesTampa, FL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Tampa metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Distance to the water drives a lot of the difference between one part and the next. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Alvesgaspar, CC BY-SA 3.0, via commons
Tampa ranks 176th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 13 minutes away. Its strengths are state infrastructure and low taxes. The cost shows up in car insurance costs, summer heat, and long commutes.
The best neighborhoods in the Tampa 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 Tampa
The towns and districts of the Tampa 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.
Riverview & Sun City Center
More households have young kids, local pay stretches further, and incomes run higher.
Spring Hill, New Port Richey & Land O' Lakes
Crime runs lower, though biking is worse.
St. Petersburg
More adults hold degrees and streets are more walkable.
Clearwater & Dunedin
Heat risk is higher and more homes sit empty.
Wesley Chapel, Zephyrhills & University
Tree cover is thicker, though transit reaches fewer jobs.
Downtown Tampa
Fewer residents vote and prices have run up more.
Largo, Pinellas Park & Seminole
Scores close to Downtown Tampa, except that health care is easier to reach here.
Palm Harbor, Holiday & Tarpon Springs
Homes cost less, though health outcomes score lower.
Plant City, Brandon & Valrico
It is noisier.
Tampa shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 1% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Tampa's strengths and weaknesses
Tampa 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 fast internet follow.
The one real hole is car insurance costs, near the bottom of the country. Summer heat and long commutes also cost it ground. Cost swings more from one part of Tampa to another than it does between Tampa and its neighbors, which the map below shows.
Where Tampa ranks high
- State infrastructureBetter than 97% of metro areas
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 96% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than 93% of metro areas
- Local economyBetter than 87% of metro areas
- Cell coverageBetter than 82% of metro areas
Where Tampa ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 4% of metro areas
- Heat safetyBetter than only 5% of metro areas
- Short commute28.3 minutes each way, better than only 8% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 11% of metro areas
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 11% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Tampa
A household needs to earn about $97,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Tampa home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $84,449, 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 Tampa's effective rate of 0.77%, 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 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Tampa
Tampa runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Tampa.
Who works in Tampa, and how
Work in Tampa 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 75%
- Work from home 20%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Tampa
The coast is about 13 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Tampa, which the map shows.
Is Tampa growing, and who is moving in?
Tampa has grown about 17% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Miami, FL.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Tampa go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Tampa, month by month
Tampa sees roughly 134 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 Tampa
Tampa International sits about 5 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 Tampa
Schools across Tampa average a B, better than 75% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Tarpon Springs Fundamental EleA+ · 92% proficient
- Cypress Woods Elementary SchoolA+ · 84% proficient
- Brooker Creek Elementary SchoolA+ · 84% proficient
Top middle schools
- Terrace Community Middle SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
- East Lake Middle School Academy Of EngineeringA+ · 84% proficient
- Clearwater Fundamental Middle SchoolA+ · 81% proficient
Top high schools
- St. Petersburg Collegiate High School North PinellasA+ · 88% proficient
- St. Petersburg Collegiate High SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
- Plant High SchoolA · 74% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Tampa school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Tampa 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 Tampa against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Tampa suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 70% of metro areas, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 20% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Tampa
Is Tampa a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Tampa ranks 176th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on state infrastructure, low taxes, and fast internet, 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 Tampa expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $372,320. The overall cost of living runs about 10% below the national average. Set against a $84,449 median income, cost of living beats 70% of metro areas.
Is Tampa safe?
Yes, Tampa is safer than 64% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $201 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Tampa?
July highs average about 92 degrees, and January highs near 72 with lows near 50. That works out to about 134 pleasant days a year, more than 80% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Tampa?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Riverview & Sun City Center, Spring Hill, New Port Richey & Land O' Lakes, and St. Petersburg. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Tampa good for families?
Schools beat 75% of metro areas, crime safety beats 64%, and childcare runs $963 a month.
Is Tampa good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 70% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 93% of metro areas. About 20% of workers already work from home.
Compare Tampa with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Tampa. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Tampa 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.
Tampa detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Tampa: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Tampa: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Tampa: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Tampa: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Tampa 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.