Best Places91020, CA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood inside ZIP code 91020, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

91020 ranks 6,620th of 33,110 U.S. zip codes on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on the weather by a wide margin, and air quality ranks lowest.

#6,620
of 33,110 zip codes
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 33,110 zip codes
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in 91020

Map of the best neighborhoods in the 91020 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
Popular priorities:

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.

91020's strengths and weaknesses

Top 3%The weather
Top 3%Big-city access
Top 5%Walkability
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare 91020 with other zip codes.

Where 91020 ranks high

  • Nice weatherabout 235 pleasant days a year, better than 98% of zip codes
  • Big-city accessBetter than 98% of zip codes
  • WalkabilityBetter than 96% of zip codes
  • TransitBetter than 95% of zip codes
  • Health outlookBetter than 95% of zip codes

Where 91020 ranks low

  • Air qualityBetter than only 2% of zip codes
  • QuietBetter than only 3% of zip codes
  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 10% of zip codes
  • Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 10% of zip codes
  • Heat safetyBetter than only 14% of zip codes

What it costs to buy a home in 91020

A household needs to earn about $232,000 a year to comfortably buy the median 91020 home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $98,006, so buying stretches a typical household.

Income to buy the median home
$232,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$5,402
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $900,100 home
Median rent
$2,305
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$4,589
Property tax$512
Homeowners insurance$300

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 91020's effective rate of 0.68%, 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.

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

Who lives in 91020

91020's age mix sits close to the national median, and households here run smaller than average.

Median age
40
about the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
17%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.4
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1824%
18 to 3419%
35 to 4920%
50 to 6420%
65 and older16%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for 91020.


Who works in 91020, and how

Work in 91020 centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
19%
above the national average
Unemployment
3.5%
below the national average
Job growth
+2.7%
/y 2019-2023, near the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social22%
Education17%
Professional & technical9%
Retail trade7%
Construction6%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 76%
  • Work from home 19%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 5%

Life in 91020

91020 has more restaurants and bars per resident than 86% of zip codes. The coast is about 23 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of 91020 and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
78
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 91.5 per 10,000 residents, more than 86% of zip codes
Coffee shops
11
about 12.9 per 10,000 residents, more than 87% of zip codes
To the coast
23 min
drive to the nearest ocean beaches

What the weather is like in 91020, month by month

91020 sees roughly 235 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 69, with lows near 44. The comfortable stretch runs September through July.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January69°56°44°
April77°63°53°
July90°75°65°
October84°69°57°

Flying in and out of 91020

Bob Hope sits about 7 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 3.1 million passengers in 2025, with 54 nonstop destinations.

Nearest airport
BUR
Bob Hope, about 7 miles
Airport size
Medium hub
57th-busiest in the US, 54 nonstop destinations
Average drive
10 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around 91020

Schools across 91020 average a B+, better than 75% of zip codes.

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every 91020 school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


91020 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 91020 against the other 33,109 zip codes.


Common questions about living in 91020

Is 91020 a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, 91020 ranks 6,620th of 33,110 zip codes. It scores highest on the weather, big-city access, and walkability, and lowest on air quality and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is 91020 expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $900,100. The overall cost of living runs about 45% above the national average. Set against a $98,006 median income, cost of living beats 24% of zip codes.

Is 91020 safe?

91020 is safer than 31% of zip codes. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $406 per resident a year.


Compare 91020 with other zip codes


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to 91020. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in 91020 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.

91020 detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for 91020: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in 91020: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of 91020: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in 91020: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

91020 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.