Best Places93950, CA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood inside ZIP code 93950, 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

93950 ranks 4,413th of 33,110 U.S. zip codes on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on the weather by a wide margin, and taxes are the weak spot.

#4,413
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 93950

Map of the best neighborhoods in the 93950 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.

93950's strengths and weaknesses

Top 3%The weather
Top 5%Clean air
Top 10%An educated workforce
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare 93950 with other zip codes.

Where 93950 ranks high

  • Nice weatherabout 216 pleasant days a year, better than 98% of zip codes
  • Air qualityBetter than 95% of zip codes
  • Educational attainmentBetter than 93% of zip codes
  • WalkabilityBetter than 93% of zip codes
  • BikingBetter than 92% of zip codes

Where 93950 ranks low

  • Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 10% of zip codes
  • Cheap childcare$1,371 a month, better than only 11% of zip codes
  • Local economyBetter than only 13% of zip codes
  • Housing crash safetyBetter than only 18% of zip codes
  • State fiscal healthBetter than only 20% of zip codes

What it costs to buy a home in 93950

A household needs to earn about $333,000 a year to comfortably buy the median 93950 home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $109,225, so buying stretches a typical household.

Income to buy the median home
$333,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$7,772
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $1,305,830 home
Median rent
$2,679
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$6,658
Property tax$679
Homeowners insurance$435

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 93950'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 93950

93950 runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.

Median age
47
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
26%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.1
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1815%
18 to 3426%
35 to 4917%
50 to 6416%
65 and older26%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for 93950.


Who works in 93950, and how

Work in 93950 centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.

Work from home
25%
above the national average
Unemployment
7.3%
above the national average
Job growth
+0.4%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social14%
Education12%
Retail trade10%
Professional & technical10%
Hospitality & food9%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 58%
  • Work from home 25%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 17%

Life in 93950

93950 has more restaurants and bars per resident than 68% of zip codes and more parkland per resident than 82% of zip codes. The coast is about 1 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of 93950 and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
91
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 49.7 per 10,000 residents, more than 68% of zip codes
Coffee shops
21
about 11.5 per 10,000 residents, more than 86% of zip codes
Parkland
128 acres
about 7.0 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 82% of zip codes
To the coast
1 min
drive to the nearest ocean beaches

What the weather is like in 93950, month by month

93950 sees roughly 216 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 69 degrees. January highs sit near 63, with lows near 43. The comfortable stretch runs April through November.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January63°52°43°
April65°56°48°
July69°60°54°
October72°60°50°

Flying in and out of 93950

The nearest airport, Monterey Regional, is about 5 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Norman Y Mineta San Jose International, about 52 miles away.

Nearest airport
MRY
Monterey Regional, about 5 miles
Airport size
Nonhub
175th-busiest in the US, 14 nonstop destinations
Average drive
8 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around 93950

Schools across 93950 average a B+, better than 67% of zip codes.

Top elementary schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every 93950 school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


93950 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 93950 against the other 33,109 zip codes.


Common questions about living in 93950

Is 93950 a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, 93950 ranks 4,413th of 33,110 zip codes. It scores highest on the weather, clean air, and an educated workforce, and lowest on taxes and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is 93950 expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $1,305,830. The overall cost of living runs about 63% above the national average. Set against a $109,225 median income, cost of living beats 24% of zip codes.

Is 93950 safe?

93950 is safer than 44% of zip codes. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $363 per resident a year.


Compare 93950 with other zip codes


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to 93950. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in 93950 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.

93950 detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for 93950: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in 93950: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of 93950: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in 93950: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

93950 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.