Best PlacesWakefield, Tucson, AZ Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Wakefield, Tucson, 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.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Wakefield, Tucson ranks 4,880th of 5,983 U.S. neighborhoods on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low property taxes by a wide margin, and tree cover ranks lowest.

#4,880
of 5,983 neighborhoods
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 5,983 neighborhoods
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Wakefield, Tucson

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Wakefield, Tucson area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
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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.

Wakefield, Tucson's strengths and weaknesses

Top 3%Low property taxes
Top 10%Low disaster risk
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Wakefield, Tucson with other neighborhoods.

Where Wakefield, Tucson ranks high

  • Low property taxBetter than 99% of neighborhoods
  • Disaster safetyBetter than 91% of neighborhoods
  • BikingBetter than 89% of neighborhoods
  • Nice weatherabout 177 pleasant days a year, better than 85% of neighborhoods
  • WalkabilityBetter than 74% of neighborhoods

Where Wakefield, Tucson ranks low

  • Tree shadeBetter than only 1% of neighborhoods
  • Educational attainmentBetter than only 2% of neighborhoods
  • Healthcare accessBetter than only 4% of neighborhoods
  • Heat safetyBetter than only 4% of neighborhoods
  • Health outlookBetter than only 11% of neighborhoods

What it costs to buy a home in Wakefield, Tucson

A household needs to earn about $42,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Wakefield, Tucson home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $54,031, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$42,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$970
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $169,434 home
Median rent
$923
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$864
Property tax$50
Homeowners insurance$56

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 Wakefield, Tucson's effective rate of 0.35%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.

Renting versus buying

At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 6 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Wakefield, Tucson

Wakefield, Tucson runs younger than the country.

Median age
36
younger than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
19%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.6
near the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1822%
18 to 3426%
35 to 4918%
50 to 6415%
65 and older19%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Wakefield, Tucson.


Who works in Wakefield, Tucson, and how

Work in Wakefield, Tucson centers on construction and health care & social. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.

Work from home
6%
below the national average
Unemployment
6.4%
above the national average
Job growth
−2.4%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Construction17%
Health care & social13%
Hospitality & food12%
Admin & support services10%
Retail trade8%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 84%
  • Work from home 6%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 10%

Life in Wakefield, Tucson

Wakefield, Tucson has more restaurants and bars per resident than 70% of neighborhoods. That concentrates in some parts of Wakefield, Tucson and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
35
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 61.3 per 10,000 residents, more than 70% of neighborhoods

What the weather is like in Wakefield, Tucson, month by month

Wakefield, Tucson sees roughly 177 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 104 degrees. January highs sit near 69, with lows near 38. The comfortable stretch runs February through April and October through December.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January69°52°38°
April88°71°53°
July104°89°77°
October91°74°59°

Flying in and out of Wakefield, Tucson

The nearest airport, Tucson International, is about 5 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Phoenix Sky Harbor International, about 106 miles away.

Nearest airport
TUS
Tucson International, about 5 miles
Airport size
Small hub
76th-busiest in the US, 42 nonstop destinations
Average drive
8 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Wakefield, Tucson

Schools across Wakefield, Tucson average a D, better than 12% of neighborhoods.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Wakefield, Tucson school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Wakefield, Tucson 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 Wakefield, Tucson against the other 5,982 neighborhoods.


Common questions about living in Wakefield, Tucson

Is Wakefield, Tucson a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Wakefield, Tucson ranks 4,880th of 5,983 neighborhoods. It scores highest on low property taxes, low disaster risk, and biking, and lowest on tree cover and education levels. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Wakefield, Tucson expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $169,434. The overall cost of living runs about 10% below the national average. Set against a $54,031 median income, cost of living beats 20% of neighborhoods.

Is Wakefield, Tucson safe?

Wakefield, Tucson is safer than 24% of neighborhoods. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $702 per resident a year.


Compare Wakefield, Tucson with other neighborhoods


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Wakefield, Tucson. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Wakefield, Tucson 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.

Wakefield, Tucson detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Wakefield, Tucson: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Wakefield, Tucson: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Wakefield, Tucson: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Wakefield, Tucson: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Wakefield, Tucson detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.