Denver’s friendliest neighborhood is a master-planned community on its extreme northeast side that many Front Range residents only glimpse on their way to Denver International Airport.
That’s the latest from social-networking company Nextdoor and its familiar smartphone app, which residents typically use to swap unwanted items, find lost dogs and stay up to date on local news.
Its new rankings put Green Valley Ranch — which was annexed from Adams County in 1973 and contains about 45,000 residents in its mix of affordable and market-rate housing — ahead of the No. 2. Wash Park West. Green Valley Ranch’s neighbor to the west, Montbello, took the No. 3 spot.
Rounding out the Top 5 are Congress Park (No. 4) and Central Park, formerly known as Stapleton (No. 5; see the full list below).
The rankings are not a matter of reputation, but rather the way neighbors relate through the app, Nextdoor said in a statement. Its study analyzed community engagement to rank local areas by friendliness, affordability, and overall quality of life.
“What makes this different from typical ‘best neighborhoods’ lists is that our rankings aren’t based on opinions or surveys,” the company said. “They come from actual neighbor interactions on Nextdoor — how people help each other out, welcome newcomers, share resources, and support local businesses. It’s real behavior, not just perception.”
That should help some Denverites make sense of the rankings, which would seem to fly in the face of lists from other apps, news media, and regional magazines that usually place well-to-do neighborhoods such as Tennyson/Berkeley, Platt Park, Hilltop, Wellshire and Cherry Creek on the top of the heap.
This study’s No. 1 Green Valley Ranch and No. 3 Montbello have been cited at times over the last decade for their violent crime rates, which place them among the highest-crime areas in the City and County of Denver, according to Denver Police Department statistics and its most recently updated Crime Map.
However, the highest density for crime rates per neighborhood is located in and around downtown Denver, including Civic Center park, Union Station (considered its own area in rankings), Capitol Hill, Northeast Park Hill and the Five Points neighborhood, according to the data.
In addition, crime rates in Green Valley Ranch and Montbello have dropped in 2025 as compared with 2024, according to DPD statistics, and Denver overall is seeing a six-year low in the number of homicides and shootings — a roughly 60% decrease from 2021’s peak of pandemic-era violence. University of Colorado’s Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence has also since 2011 led youth violence prevention efforts in Montbello, Green Valley Ranch and Park Hill.
Green Valley Ranch deserves to be No. 1 in friendliness and affordability not because of raw statistics or reputation, but because its community is thriving and diverse, based on Nextdoor’s neighborhood-interaction metrics, the company said.
The full Top 20 list is below.
Denver’s friendliest neighborhoods, as ranked by Nextdoor
- Green Valley Ranch
- Wash Park West
- Montbello
- Congress Park
- Central Park
- East Colfax
- University Hills
- Platt Park
- Sherrelwood
- Marston
- South Park Hill
- West Highland
- Sunnyside
- Cheesman Park
- University Neighbors
- Washington Park East
- Westwood
- Fort Logan
- Harvey Park
- Sloans/Highlands