Best PlacesYellow Jacket, CO Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Yellow Jacket, 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.
Yellow Jacket ranks 21,647th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on quiet by a wide margin, and distance from a big city ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Yellow Jacket
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.
Yellow Jacket's strengths and weaknesses
Where Yellow Jacket ranks high
- QuietBetter than 97% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 97% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 160 pleasant days a year, better than 95% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 90% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 89% of towns
Where Yellow Jacket ranks low
- Big-city accessBetter than only 3% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 7% of towns
- School gradeD+, better than only 12% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 13% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 18% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Yellow Jacket
A household needs to earn about $94,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Yellow Jacket home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $91,237; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Yellow Jacket's effective rate of 0.25%, 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 Yellow Jacket
Yellow Jacket 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 Yellow Jacket.
Who works in Yellow Jacket, and how
Work in Yellow Jacket centers on retail trade and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 87%
- Work from home 9%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Yellow Jacket
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Yellow Jacket.
What the weather is like in Yellow Jacket, month by month
Yellow Jacket sees roughly 160 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 93 degrees. January highs sit near 43, with lows near 13. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 43° | 27° | 13° |
| April | 68° | 49° | 28° |
| July | 93° | 74° | 53° |
| October | 70° | 49° | 31° |
Flying in and out of Yellow Jacket
The nearest airport, Cortez Municipal, is about 16 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Albuquerque International Sunport, about 209 miles away.
The best schools in and around Yellow Jacket
Schools across Yellow Jacket average a D+, better than 12% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Lewis-arriola Elementary SchoolC · 31% proficient
- Pleasant View Elementary SchoolD+ · 25% proficient
Top middle schools
- Montezuma-cortez Middle SchoolD− · 15% proficient
Top high schools
- Montezuma-cortez High SchoolD+ · 25% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Yellow Jacket school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Yellow Jacket 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 Yellow Jacket against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Yellow Jacket
Is Yellow Jacket a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Yellow Jacket ranks 21,647th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on quiet, low property taxes, and the weather, and lowest on distance from a big city and state finances. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Yellow Jacket expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $388,064. The overall cost of living runs about 7% below the national average. Set against a $91,237 median income, cost of living beats 76% of towns.
Is Yellow Jacket safe?
Yellow Jacket is safer than 19% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $618 per resident a year.
Compare Yellow Jacket with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Yellow Jacket. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Yellow Jacket 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.
Yellow Jacket detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Yellow Jacket: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Yellow Jacket: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Yellow Jacket: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Yellow Jacket: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Yellow Jacket 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.