Best PlacesTwin Falls, ID Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Twin Falls 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 Tommyers89, CC BY-SA 4.0, via commons
Twin Falls ranks 31st 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 finances and clean air. The weaker spots are distance from a big city, tree cover, and an overheated housing market.
The best neighborhoods in the Twin Falls 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 Twin Falls
The towns and districts of the Twin Falls 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.
Kimberly
It is quieter, more residents vote, and more households have young kids.
Downtown Twin Falls
Biking is better and more adults hold degrees.
Buhl
Local pay stretches further, though commutes are longer.
Filer
Prices have run up less, though advertised internet is slower.
Jerome
Health care is harder to reach and schools score lower.
Scores across Twin Falls run from about the 30th to the 99th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Twin Falls' strengths and weaknesses
Twin Falls ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. State finances is the standout, in the top 1% of metro areas. Clean air and cheap car insurance follow.
The one real hole is distance from a big city, near the bottom of the country. Tree cover and an overheated housing market also cost it ground. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Twin Falls ranks high
- State fiscal healthBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than 98% of metro areas
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 98% of metro areas
- Crime safetyBetter than 95% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$581 a month, better than 95% of metro areas
Where Twin Falls ranks low
- Big-city accessBetter than only 2% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than only 7% of metro areas
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 8% of metro areas
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 9% of metro areas
- TransitBetter than only 13% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Twin Falls
A household needs to earn about $85,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Twin Falls home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $75,338, 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 Twin Falls' effective rate of 0.61%, 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 Twin Falls
Twin Falls runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Twin Falls.
Who works in Twin Falls, and how
Work in Twin Falls centers on manufacturing and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 90%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Twin Falls
Twin Falls has less parkland per resident than most metro areas and less late-night activity than most metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Twin Falls and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Twin Falls growing, and who is moving in?
Twin Falls has grown about 18% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Gooding County, ID.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Twin Falls go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Twin Falls, month by month
Twin Falls sees roughly 155 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 93 degrees. January highs sit near 39, with lows near 20. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, August, and September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 39° | 29° | 20° |
| April | 63° | 47° | 34° |
| July | 93° | 76° | 59° |
| October | 66° | 49° | 36° |
Flying in and out of Twin Falls
The nearest airport, Joslin Field/Magic Valley Regional, is about 6 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Boise Air Trml/Gowen Field, about 112 miles away.
The best schools in and around Twin Falls
Schools across Twin Falls average a C+, better than 45% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Pillar Falls ElementaryA · 65% proficient
- Pinecrest Academy Of IdahoB+ · 55% proficient
- Sawtooth Elementary SchoolB+ · 54% proficient
Top middle schools
- Vera C O'leary Middle SchoolB+ · 50% proficient
- Filer Intermediate SchoolB · 45% proficient
- Filer Middle SchoolB · 43% proficient
Top high schools
- Kimberly High SchoolB+ · 53% proficient
- Twin Falls High SchoolB+ · 52% proficient
- Filer High SchoolB− · 43% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Twin Falls school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Twin Falls 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 Twin Falls against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Twin Falls suits
Families
Schools land around the 45th percentile and crime safety beats 95%.
Retirees
The weather beats 88% of metro areas and it is quieter than 87%.
Common questions about living in Twin Falls
Is Twin Falls a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Twin Falls ranks 31st of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on state finances, clean air, and cheap car insurance, and lowest on distance from a big city and tree cover. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Twin Falls expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $332,191. The overall cost of living runs about 13% below the national average. Set against a $75,338 median income, cost of living beats 42% of metro areas.
Is Twin Falls safe?
Yes, Twin Falls is safer than 95% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $241 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Twin Falls?
July highs average about 93 degrees, and January highs near 39 with lows near 20. That works out to about 155 pleasant days a year, more than 88% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Twin Falls?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Kimberly, Downtown Twin Falls, and Buhl. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Twin Falls good for families?
Schools beat 45% of metro areas, crime safety beats 95%, and childcare runs $581 a month.
Is Twin Falls good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 42% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 58% of metro areas. About 8% of workers already work from home.
Compare Twin Falls with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Twin Falls. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Twin Falls 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.
Twin Falls detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Twin Falls: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Twin Falls: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Twin Falls: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Twin Falls: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Twin Falls 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.