Best PlacesThe Villages, FL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around The Villages, 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.
The Villages ranks 1,013th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on health care access by a wide margin, and summer heat is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in The Villages
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 Villages' strengths and weaknesses
Where The Villages ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 99% of cities
- Voter turnoutBetter than 98% of cities
- State infrastructureBetter than 96% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 95% of cities
- QuietBetter than 92% of cities
Where The Villages ranks low
- Heat safetyBetter than only 2% of cities
- WalkabilityBetter than only 4% of cities
- Low vacancyBetter than only 4% of cities
- TransitBetter than only 13% of cities
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 17% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in The Villages
A household needs to earn about $110,000 a year to comfortably buy the median The Villages home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $80,576, 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 The Villages' effective rate of 0.79%, 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 The Villages
The Villages runs older 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 The Villages.
Who works in The Villages, and how
Work in The Villages centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 62%
- Work from home 28%
- Transit, walk, or bike 9%
Life in The Villages
The Villages has more parkland per resident than 84% of cities. That concentrates in some parts of The Villages and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in The Villages, month by month
The Villages sees roughly 129 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 93 degrees. January highs sit near 72, with lows near 48. The comfortable stretch runs November through April.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 72° | 59° | 48° |
| April | 85° | 73° | 61° |
| July | 93° | 82° | 75° |
| October | 87° | 76° | 67° |
Flying in and out of The Villages
The nearest airport, Orlando Sanford International, is about 46 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Orlando International, about 52 miles away.
The best schools in and around The Villages
Schools across The Villages average a B−, better than 43% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Wildwood Elementary SchoolB · 45% proficient
- Harbour View Elementary SchoolB− · 41% proficient
- Stanton-weirsdale Elementary SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
Top middle schools
- Carver Middle SchoolB− · 41% proficient
- Mulberry Middle SchoolC+ · 37% proficient
- Oak Park Middle SchoolC · 33% proficient
Top high schools
- George W. Jenkins Senior HighB− · 43% proficient
- Belleview High SchoolB− · 43% proficient
- Wildwood Middle/ High SchoolC+ · 37% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every The Villages school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
The Villages 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 The Villages against the other 2,097 cities.
Who The Villages suits
Families
Schools land around the 43rd percentile and crime safety beats 91%.
Retirees
The weather beats 74% of cities, health care access beats 100%, and it is quieter than 92%.
Common questions about living in The Villages
Is The Villages a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, The Villages ranks 1,013th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on health care access, civic engagement, and state infrastructure, and lowest on summer heat and walkability. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is The Villages expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $421,454. The overall cost of living runs about 11% below the national average. Set against a $80,576 median income, cost of living beats 58% of cities.
Is The Villages safe?
Yes, The Villages is safer than 91% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $128 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in The Villages?
July highs average about 93 degrees, and January highs near 72 with lows near 48. That works out to about 129 pleasant days a year, more than 74% of cities.
Is The Villages good for families?
Schools beat 43% of cities, crime safety beats 91%, and childcare runs $920 a month.
Compare The Villages with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to The Villages. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in The Villages 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.
The Villages detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for The Villages: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in The Villages: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of The Villages: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in The Villages: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
The Villages 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.