Best PlacesVernal, UT Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Vernal, 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.
Vernal ranks 11,767th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low disaster risk by a wide margin, and air quality ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Vernal
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.
Vernal's strengths and weaknesses
Where Vernal ranks high
- Disaster safetyBetter than 97% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 165 pleasant days a year, better than 96% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 95% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 92% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 91% of towns
Where Vernal ranks low
- Air qualityBetter than only 8% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 9% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 16% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 17% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 24% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Vernal
A household needs to earn about $75,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Vernal home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $75,595, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
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 Vernal's effective rate of 0.50%, 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 Vernal
Vernal runs younger than the country, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Vernal.
Who works in Vernal, and how
Work in Vernal centers on retail trade and mining & oil & gas. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 81%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 11%
Life in Vernal
Vernal has more restaurants and bars per resident than 76% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Vernal and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Vernal, month by month
Vernal sees roughly 165 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 95 degrees. January highs sit near 32, with lows near 8. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, August, and September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 32° | 20° | 8° |
| April | 65° | 48° | 31° |
| July | 95° | 77° | 57° |
| October | 65° | 48° | 33° |
Flying in and out of Vernal
The nearest airport, Vernal Regional, is about 2 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Salt Lake City International, about 130 miles away.
The best schools in and around Vernal
Schools across Vernal average a C, better than 36% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Discovery SchoolB · 49% proficient
- Maeser SchoolB− · 44% proficient
- Manila SchoolB− · 43% proficient
Top middle schools
- Uintah Middle SchoolB · 45% proficient
- Vernal MiddleB− · 42% proficient
- Roosevelt Jr HighC− · 30% proficient
Top high schools
- Manila HighC+ · 37% proficient
- Union HighC− · 30% proficient
- Rangely Junior/senior High SchoolC− · 27% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Vernal school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Vernal 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 Vernal against the other 50,332 towns.
Who Vernal suits
Families
Schools land around the 36th percentile and crime safety beats 70%.
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 8% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Vernal
Is Vernal a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Vernal ranks 11,767th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low disaster risk, the weather, and heat safety, and lowest on air quality and an overheated housing market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Vernal expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $297,740. The overall cost of living runs about 10% below the national average. Set against a $75,595 median income, cost of living beats 49% of towns.
Is Vernal safe?
Yes, Vernal is safer than 70% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $312 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Vernal?
July highs average about 95 degrees, and January highs near 32 with lows near 8. That works out to about 165 pleasant days a year, more than 96% of towns.
Is Vernal good for families?
Schools beat 36% of towns, crime safety beats 70%, and childcare runs $929 a month.
Compare Vernal with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Vernal. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Vernal 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.
Vernal detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Vernal: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Vernal: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Vernal: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Vernal: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Vernal 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.