Best Places94606, CA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood inside ZIP code 94606, 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

94606 ranks 15,796th of 33,110 U.S. zip codes on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on fast internet by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.

#15,796
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 94606

Map of the best neighborhoods in the 94606 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.

94606's strengths and weaknesses

Top 1%Fast internet
Top 3%The weather
Top 3%Biking
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare 94606 with other zip codes.

Where 94606 ranks high

  • Internet speedBetter than 99% of zip codes
  • Nice weatherabout 223 pleasant days a year, better than 98% of zip codes
  • BikingBetter than 98% of zip codes
  • TransitBetter than 98% of zip codes
  • WalkabilityBetter than 98% of zip codes

Where 94606 ranks low

  • Cheap childcare$2,082 a month, better than only 1% of zip codes
  • Voter turnoutBetter than only 4% of zip codes
  • Crime safetyBetter than only 5% of zip codes
  • Disaster safetyBetter than only 7% of zip codes
  • Healthcare accessBetter than only 10% of zip codes

What it costs to buy a home in 94606

A household needs to earn about $208,000 a year to comfortably buy the median 94606 home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $81,389, so buying stretches a typical household.

Income to buy the median home
$208,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$4,844
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $798,976 home
Median rent
$1,917
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$4,074
Property tax$504
Homeowners insurance$266

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 94606's effective rate of 0.76%, 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 94606

94606's age mix sits close to the national median.

Median age
39
younger than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
13%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.6
near the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1816%
18 to 3427%
35 to 4924%
50 to 6420%
65 and older14%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for 94606.


Who works in 94606, and how

Work in 94606 centers on health care & social and hospitality & food. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
20%
above the national average
Unemployment
7.0%
above the national average
Job growth
+2.4%
/y 2019-2023, near the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social17%
Hospitality & food10%
Education10%
Professional & technical10%
Other services7%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 59%
  • Work from home 20%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 22%

Life in 94606

The coast is about 17 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across 94606, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
115
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 28.6 per 10,000 residents, more than 42% of zip codes
Coffee shops
20
about 5.0 per 10,000 residents, more than 66% of zip codes
To the coast
17 min
drive to the nearest ocean beaches

What the weather is like in 94606, month by month

94606 sees roughly 223 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 74 degrees. January highs sit near 61, with lows near 43. The comfortable stretch runs March through November.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January61°52°43°
April68°57°49°
July74°63°56°
October76°63°51°

Flying in and out of 94606

San Francisco Bay Oakland International sits about 5 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 4.5 million passengers in 2025, with 64 nonstop destinations.

Nearest airport
OAK
San Francisco Bay Oakland International, about 5 miles
Airport size
Medium hub
48th-busiest in the US, 64 nonstop destinations
Average drive
8 min
from the area, with no traffic

94606 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 94606 against the other 33,109 zip codes.


Who 94606 suits

Families

Schools land around the 38th percentile.

See the families priority ↑

Remote workers

Internet is fast and widely advertised and 20% already work from home.

See the remote-work priority ↑

Retirees

The weather beats 98% of zip codes.

See the retirees priority ↑


Common questions about living in 94606

Is 94606 a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, 94606 ranks 15,796th of 33,110 zip codes. It scores highest on fast internet, the weather, and biking, and lowest on childcare costs and civic engagement. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is 94606 expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $798,976. The overall cost of living runs about 22% above the national average. Set against a $81,389 median income, cost of living beats 24% of zip codes.

Is 94606 safe?

94606 is safer than 5% of zip codes. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $796 per resident a year.

What is the weather like in 94606?

July highs average about 74 degrees, and January highs near 61 with lows near 43. That works out to about 223 pleasant days a year, more than 98% of zip codes.

Is 94606 good for families?

Schools beat 38% of zip codes, crime safety beats 5%, and childcare runs $2,082 a month.


Compare 94606 with other zip codes


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to 94606. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in 94606 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.

94606 detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for 94606: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in 94606: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of 94606: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in 94606: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

94606 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.