Best PlacesVail, CO Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Vail, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Vail ranks 14,822nd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on heat safety by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Vail
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.
Vail's strengths and weaknesses
Where Vail ranks high
- Heat safetyBetter than 99% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 99% of towns
- BikingBetter than 99% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 98% of towns
- TransitBetter than 98% of towns
Where Vail ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 1% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 3% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,489 a month, better than only 4% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 7% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Vail
A household needs to earn about $350,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Vail home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $101,232, 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 Vail's effective rate of 0.27%, 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 Vail
Vail 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 Vail.
Who works in Vail, and how
Work in Vail centers on hospitality & food and arts & entertainment. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 62%
- Work from home 15%
- Transit, walk, or bike 23%
Life in Vail
Vail has more restaurants and bars per resident than 98% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Vail and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Vail, month by month
Vail sees roughly 150 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 67 degrees. January highs sit near 25, with lows near 13. The comfortable stretch runs July and August.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 25° | 18° | 13° |
| April | 38° | 30° | 25° |
| July | 67° | 57° | 50° |
| October | 46° | 37° | 31° |
Flying in and out of Vail
The nearest airport, Eagle County Regional, is about 28 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Denver International, about 92 miles away.
The best schools in and around Vail
Schools across Vail average a C, better than 29% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Red Sandstone Elementary SchoolC · 33% proficient
- Homestake Peak SchoolC− · 27% proficient
- Avon Elementary SchoolD− · 13% proficient
Top middle schools
- Summit Middle SchoolC− · 29% proficient
- Berry Creek Middle SchoolD · 22% proficient
Top high schools
- Summit High SchoolB− · 42% proficient
- Battle Mountain High SchoolC+ · 36% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Vail school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Vail 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 Vail against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Vail
Is Vail a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Vail ranks 14,822nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on heat safety, population health, and biking, and lowest on an overheated housing market and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Vail expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,445,238. The overall cost of living runs about 19% above the national average. Set against a $101,232 median income, cost of living beats 79% of towns.
Is Vail safe?
Vail is safer than 3% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $1,363 per resident a year.
Compare Vail with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Vail. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Vail 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.
Vail detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Vail: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Vail: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Vail: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Vail: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Vail 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.