Best PlacesTelluride, CO Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Telluride, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Telluride ranks 4,529th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on biking by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Telluride
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.
Telluride's strengths and weaknesses
Where Telluride ranks high
- BikingBetter than 99% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 99% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 99% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 99% of towns
- Short commute11.4 minutes each way, better than 99% of towns
Where Telluride ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,725 a month, better than only 1% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 3% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 6% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 6% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Telluride
A household needs to earn about $243,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Telluride home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $121,049, 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 Telluride's effective rate of 0.30%, 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 Telluride
Telluride runs older than the country, though fewer residents are over 65 than the national share, 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 Telluride.
Who works in Telluride, and how
Work in Telluride centers on professional & technical and education. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 34%
- Work from home 15%
- Transit, walk, or bike 51%
Life in Telluride
Telluride has more restaurants and bars per resident than 95% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Telluride and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Telluride, month by month
Telluride sees roughly 190 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 76 degrees. January highs sit near 35, with lows near 18. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 35° | 25° | 18° |
| April | 51° | 40° | 31° |
| July | 76° | 63° | 53° |
| October | 57° | 45° | 36° |
Flying in and out of Telluride
The nearest airport, Telluride Regional, is about 4 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Albuquerque International Sunport, about 212 miles away.
The best schools in and around Telluride
Schools across Telluride average a B, better than 65% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Ridgway Elementary SchoolB+ · 55% proficient
- Telluride Intermediate SchoolB− · 41% proficient
Top middle schools
- Telluride Middle SchoolB · 43% proficient
- Ridgway Middle SchoolC · 34% proficient
Top high schools
- Telluride High SchoolB+ · 52% proficient
- Ridgway High SchoolC− · 27% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Telluride school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Telluride 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 Telluride against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Telluride
Is Telluride a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Telluride ranks 4,529th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on biking, walkability, and heat safety, and lowest on an overheated housing market and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Telluride expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $995,261. The overall cost of living runs about 76% above the national average. Set against a $121,049 median income, cost of living beats 35% of towns.
Is Telluride safe?
Telluride is safer than 6% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $958 per resident a year.
Compare Telluride with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Telluride. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Telluride 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.
Telluride detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Telluride: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Telluride: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Telluride: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Telluride: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Telluride 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.