Best Places91205, CA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood inside ZIP code 91205, 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

91205 ranks 18,157th 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.

#18,157
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
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The best neighborhoods in 91205

Map of the best neighborhoods in the 91205 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.

91205's strengths and weaknesses

Top 3%The weather
Top 3%Big-city access
Top 3%Biking
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare 91205 with other zip codes.

Where 91205 ranks high

  • Nice weatherabout 267 pleasant days a year, better than 99% of zip codes
  • Big-city accessBetter than 99% of zip codes
  • BikingBetter than 98% of zip codes
  • TransitBetter than 98% of zip codes
  • WalkabilityBetter than 98% of zip codes

Where 91205 ranks low

  • Air qualityBetter than only 2% of zip codes
  • Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 3% of zip codes
  • Voter turnoutBetter than only 7% of zip codes
  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 7% of zip codes
  • Disaster safetyBetter than only 9% of zip codes

What it costs to buy a home in 91205

A household needs to earn about $202,000 a year to comfortably buy the median 91205 home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $67,159, so buying stretches a typical household.

Income to buy the median home
$202,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$4,709
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $791,325 home
Median rent
$1,983
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$4,035
Property tax$410
Homeowners insurance$264

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 91205's effective rate of 0.62%, 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 91205

91205's age mix sits close to the national median.

Median age
42
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
21%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.6
near the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1816%
18 to 3424%
35 to 4921%
50 to 6419%
65 and older21%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for 91205.


Who works in 91205, and how

Work in 91205 centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.

Work from home
19%
above the national average
Unemployment
6.9%
above the national average
Job growth
+0.9%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social20%
Retail trade11%
Professional & technical9%
Hospitality & food7%
Education7%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 70%
  • Work from home 19%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 11%

Life in 91205

The coast is about 19 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across 91205, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
164
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 44.7 per 10,000 residents, more than 63% of zip codes
Coffee shops
6
about 1.6 per 10,000 residents, more than 45% of zip codes
To the coast
19 min
drive to the nearest ocean beaches

What the weather is like in 91205, month by month

91205 sees roughly 267 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 91205

Bob Hope sits about 8 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 8 miles
Airport size
Medium hub
57th-busiest in the US, 54 nonstop destinations
Average drive
11 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around 91205

Schools across 91205 average a C+, better than 42% of zip codes.

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every 91205 school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


91205 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 91205 against the other 33,109 zip codes.


Who 91205 suits

Families

Schools land around the 42nd percentile.

See the families priority ↑

Remote workers

19% already work from home.

See the remote-work priority ↑

Retirees

The weather beats 99% of zip codes.

See the retirees priority ↑


Common questions about living in 91205

Is 91205 a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, 91205 ranks 18,157th of 33,110 zip codes. It scores highest on the weather, big-city access, and biking, and lowest on air quality and the cost of living against local pay. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is 91205 expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $791,325. The overall cost of living runs about 44% above the national average. Set against a $67,159 median income, cost of living beats 3% of zip codes.

Is 91205 safe?

91205 is safer than 22% of zip codes. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $466 per resident a year.

What is the weather like in 91205?

July highs average about 90 degrees, and January highs near 69 with lows near 44. That works out to about 267 pleasant days a year, more than 99% of zip codes.

Is 91205 good for families?

Schools beat 42% of zip codes, crime safety beats 22%, and childcare runs $1,130 a month.


Compare 91205 with other zip codes


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to 91205. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in 91205 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.

91205 detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for 91205: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in 91205: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of 91205: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in 91205: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

91205 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.