How we score towns
Every town gets the same scorecard, built from things we can count and check.
| Category | What we look at |
|---|---|
| Nightlife | Live music venues, bars and spots open late. A 3 means good bars that are busy on weekends or in season. A 5 means big city nightlife any night of the week |
| Meet people | Weekly clubs, rec leagues, meetups, volunteer groups and community events |
| Peace and quiet | Traffic, visitor crowds and noise, scored so 5 is quietest |
| Walkability | How many daily needs are within a short walk of the center of town |
| On the water | Marinas, boat ramps, fishing piers and waterfront access |
| Beaches | Public beach access, sand and water quality, and national beach rankings |
| Dining and arts | Restaurants, galleries, theaters and festivals |
| Outdoors and wellness | Parks, trails, springs, bike paths and farmers markets |
| Affordability | Home prices compared with the Florida median, plus typical insurance costs. 5 is most affordable |
| Airport access | Drive time to the nearest major airport |
| Public school grades | Not on the scorecard. Used when you raise it on the sliders. From the Florida Department of Education grade for the county school district that serves the town (2025-26). It does not rate any single school; check the official school grades for an address. |
| Community and social scene | Not scored. A write up of what a night out looks like and where people meet: venues, clubs, markets and events, plus a quick look at pickleball, tennis, golf, live music, trivia, pro sports and places of worship nearby. Places and things to do, never who lives there. |
| Schools | Not scored. We link to official Florida school grades so you can see the facts yourself. |
What we never score
We rate places, not people. We never score or describe a town by who lives there, including age, family status, marital status, religion, race, national origin, sex or disability, and we never steer anyone toward or away from a town.
Your priorities, your ranking
On the Priorities page you choose what matters to you. Your matches come from your own choices, and every town stays open to you.
How the match works
Your must haves count the most, about three times an important and nine times a nice to have. A town that is weak on one of your must haves drops down your list, even if it does everything else well, and a weak score on something you called important costs a little too.
We show a fit percentage when your best match is a real fit. When no town has everything you asked for, we skip the numbers, show you the closest towns and tell you plainly what the closest one gives up.
Your budget
| Your range | Full credit for towns scoring |
|---|---|
| Under $350K | 4 or 5 on Affordability |
| $350K to $500K | 3 and up |
| $500K to $750K | 2 and up |
We ask for a price range and match it to typical home prices in each town, using the Affordability score, as in the table above. A town inside your range gets full credit, and it loses ground for every step it is pricier than that. It is a guide to what is typical in a town, not a search of homes for sale.
If boating and fishing is your answer, we lean a little further toward lower priced towns, because docks, slips and waterfront insurance cost more in the priciest ones. If you add Affordability as a priority yourself, it carries one and a half times the weight of any other priority at the same level.
City or quiet
We ask how busy you want home to be, from right in the middle of it to as quiet as it gets. We match that against each town's Peace and quiet score. A town that sits where you asked gets full credit, and it loses ground for every step it is busier or quieter than that. You can change it any time in the priorities bar.
One coast, one area or all of it
Pick a coast and we only rank towns on that coast. You can also narrow it to one of 15 areas, like the Space Coast or the Palm Beaches, if you already know roughly where you want to be.