Best PlacesWinter Park, FL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Winter Park, 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.
Winter Park ranks 416th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on state infrastructure by a wide margin, and summer heat is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Winter Park
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 Winter Park
The parts of Winter Park, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first.
Virginia Heights
Four Seasons
Winter Park Woods, Hidden Oaks & Baldwin Park
Home Acres
Scores across Winter Park run from about the 32nd to the 99th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Winter Park's strengths and weaknesses
Where Winter Park ranks high
- State infrastructureBetter than 96% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 95% of cities
- Educational attainmentBetter than 86% of cities
- BikingBetter than 82% of cities
- Local economyBetter than 81% of cities
Where Winter Park ranks low
- Heat safetyBetter than only 8% of cities
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 8% of cities
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 12% of cities
- Low vacancyBetter than only 26% of cities
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 30% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Winter Park
A household needs to earn about $153,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Winter Park home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $112,096, 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 Winter Park's effective rate of 0.74%, 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 Winter Park
Winter Park's age mix sits close to the national median, 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 Winter Park.
Who works in Winter Park, and how
Work in Winter Park centers on professional & technical and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 70%
- Work from home 26%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Winter Park
Winter Park has more restaurants and bars per resident than 89% of cities and more parkland per resident than 92% of cities. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Winter Park and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Winter Park, month by month
Winter Park sees roughly 131 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 94 degrees. January highs sit near 74, with lows near 50. The comfortable stretch runs November through April.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 74° | 61° | 50° |
| April | 86° | 74° | 64° |
| July | 94° | 83° | 76° |
| October | 87° | 77° | 69° |
Flying in and out of Winter Park
Orlando International sits about 12 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 28.1 million passengers in 2025, with 223 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Winter Park
Schools across Winter Park average a B+, better than 78% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Dommerich ElementaryA+ · 87% proficient
- Baldwin Park ElementaryA+ · 72% proficient
- Red Bug Elementary SchoolA · 64% proficient
Top middle schools
- Maitland MiddleA · 60% proficient
- Glenridge MiddleA− · 57% proficient
- Tuskawilla Middle SchoolA− · 56% proficient
Top high schools
- Winter Park HighA− · 61% proficient
- Lake Howell High SchoolB · 50% proficient
- Edgewater HighC+ · 40% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Winter Park school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Winter Park 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 Winter Park against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Winter Park suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 78% of cities, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 26% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Winter Park
Is Winter Park a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Winter Park ranks 416th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on state infrastructure, low taxes, and an educated workforce, and lowest on summer heat 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 Winter Park expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $591,841. The overall cost of living runs about 2% below the national average. Set against a $112,096 median income, cost of living beats 78% of cities.
Is Winter Park safe?
Winter Park is safer than 47% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $223 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Winter Park?
July highs average about 94 degrees, and January highs near 74 with lows near 50. That works out to about 131 pleasant days a year, more than 75% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Winter Park?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Virginia Heights, Four Seasons, and Winter Park Woods, Hidden Oaks & Baldwin Park. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Compare Winter Park with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Winter Park. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Winter Park 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.
Winter Park detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Winter Park: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Winter Park: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Winter Park: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Winter Park: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Winter Park 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.