Best Places91208, CA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood inside ZIP code 91208, 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

91208 ranks 5,707th 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.

#5,707
of 33,110 zip codes
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
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of 33,110 zip codes
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The best neighborhoods in 91208

Map of the best neighborhoods in the 91208 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
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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.

91208's strengths and weaknesses

Top 3%The weather
Top 3%Big-city access
Top 5%High incomes
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare 91208 with other zip codes.

Where 91208 ranks high

  • Nice weatherabout 238 pleasant days a year, better than 98% of zip codes
  • Big-city accessBetter than 98% of zip codes
  • Household income$148,631 median, better than 96% of zip codes
  • Educational attainmentBetter than 94% of zip codes
  • Health outlookBetter than 93% of zip codes

Where 91208 ranks low

  • Air qualityBetter than only 2% of zip codes
  • QuietBetter than only 8% of zip codes
  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 9% of zip codes
  • Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 10% of zip codes
  • Heat safetyBetter than only 12% of zip codes

What it costs to buy a home in 91208

A household needs to earn about $376,000 a year to comfortably buy the median 91208 home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $148,631, so buying stretches a typical household.

Income to buy the median home
$376,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$8,778
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $1,471,956 home
Median rent
$2,598
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$7,505
Property tax$783
Homeowners insurance$491

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 91208's effective rate of 0.64%, 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 91208

91208 runs older than the country.

Median age
48
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
22%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.6
near the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1820%
18 to 3416%
35 to 4920%
50 to 6422%
65 and older22%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for 91208.


Who works in 91208, and how

Work in 91208 centers on health care & social and professional & technical. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.

Work from home
26%
above the national average
Unemployment
8.3%
above the national average
Job growth
+1.4%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social21%
Professional & technical15%
Education9%
Arts & entertainment6%
Finance & insurance6%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 71%
  • Work from home 26%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 3%

Life in 91208

91208 has more parkland per resident than 74% of zip codes. The coast is about 22 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of 91208 and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
40
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 24.5 per 10,000 residents, more than 36% of zip codes
Coffee shops
7
about 4.3 per 10,000 residents, more than 62% of zip codes
Parkland
77 acres
about 4.7 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 74% of zip codes
To the coast
22 min
drive to the nearest ocean beaches

What the weather is like in 91208, month by month

91208 sees roughly 238 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 91208

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
11 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around 91208

Schools across 91208 average a B, better than 67% of zip codes.

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every 91208 school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


91208 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 91208 against the other 33,109 zip codes.


Common questions about living in 91208

Is 91208 a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, 91208 ranks 5,707th of 33,110 zip codes. It scores highest on the weather, big-city access, and high incomes, 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 91208 expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $1,471,956. The overall cost of living runs about 58% above the national average. Set against a $148,631 median income, cost of living beats 68% of zip codes.

Is 91208 safe?

91208 is safer than 25% of zip codes. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $447 per resident a year.


Compare 91208 with other zip codes


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to 91208. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in 91208 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.

91208 detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for 91208: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in 91208: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of 91208: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in 91208: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

91208 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.