Best PlacesArden-Arcade, CA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Arden-Arcade, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Arden-Arcade ranks 288th of 445 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on crime and taxes. It does better on transit, which keeps it off the bottom.

#288
of 445 cities
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 445 cities
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Arden-Arcade

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Arden-Arcade 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.

The best areas in Arden-Arcade

The parts of Arden-Arcade, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the city.

#1

Arden Park Vista

Incomes run higher, local pay stretches further, and more adults hold degrees.

WorseBetter
85th nationally
#2

Del Paso Manor

More residents vote, though fewer households have young kids.

WorseBetter
68th nationally
#3

Arden Manor

Health care is easier to reach, though homes cost more.

WorseBetter
67th nationally
#4

Northeastern Arden-Arcade

Streets are more car-dependent and biking is worse.

WorseBetter
59th nationally
#5

Sierra Oaks

Heat risk is lower.

WorseBetter
36th nationally
#6

Ben Ali

Crime runs higher and it is noisier.

WorseBetter
27th nationally
#7

Northwestern Arden-Arcade

Health outcomes score lower and prices have run up more.

WorseBetter
18th nationally

Arden-Arcade shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 9% of the country and others in the top 7%. Pick the area first, then the home.


Arden-Arcade's strengths and weaknesses

Arden-Arcade lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Transit, biking, and walkability carry most of that.

The one real hole is crime, near the bottom of the country. Taxes and a weak job market also cost it ground. The detail is below, and the map is where it turns into a choice of neighborhood rather than just a place.

Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Arden-Arcade with other cities.

Where Arden-Arcade ranks high

  • TransitBetter than 89% of cities
  • BikingBetter than 83% of cities
  • WalkabilityBetter than 78% of cities
  • Nice weatherabout 149 pleasant days a year, better than 72% of cities
  • Low property taxBetter than 69% of cities

Where Arden-Arcade ranks low

  • Crime safetyBetter than only 4% of cities
  • Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 15% of cities
  • Local economyBetter than only 20% of cities
  • State infrastructureBetter than only 21% of cities
  • State fiscal healthBetter than only 23% of cities

What it costs to buy a home in Arden-Arcade

A household needs to earn about $145,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Arden-Arcade home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $87,804, so buying stretches a typical household.

Income to buy the median home
$145,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$3,374
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $561,079 home
Median rent
$1,635
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$2,861
Property tax$326
Homeowners insurance$187

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 Arden-Arcade's effective rate of 0.70%, 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 Arden-Arcade

Arden-Arcade's age mix sits close to the national median.

Median age
40
about the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
18%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.5
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1822%
18 to 3424%
35 to 4919%
50 to 6417%
65 and older18%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Arden-Arcade.


Who works in Arden-Arcade, and how

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

Work from home
18%
above the national average
Unemployment
6.5%
above the national average
Job growth
+0.9%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social15%
Retail trade11%
Public administration10%
Professional & technical9%
Education9%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 75%
  • Work from home 18%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 7%

Life in Arden-Arcade

Arden-Arcade has more restaurants and bars per resident than 78% of cities and more parkland per resident than 79% of cities. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Arden-Arcade and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
526
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 49.3 per 10,000 residents, more than 78% of cities
Coffee shops
60
about 5.6 per 10,000 residents, more than 81% of cities
Parkland
229 acres
about 2.1 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 79% of cities
Open past 10pm
~71
food and drink venues open late, about 6.6 per 10,000 residents, more than 50% of cities

What the weather is like in Arden-Arcade, month by month

Arden-Arcade sees roughly 149 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 97 degrees. January highs sit near 58, with lows near 41. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January58°48°41°
April75°60°49°
July97°78°63°
October80°65°52°

Flying in and out of Arden-Arcade

Sacramento International sits about 13 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 6.8 million passengers in 2025, with 85 nonstop destinations.

Nearest airport
SMF
Sacramento International, about 13 miles
Airport size
Medium hub
36th-busiest in the US, 85 nonstop destinations
Average drive
18 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Arden-Arcade

Schools across Arden-Arcade average a C+, better than 44% of cities.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

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


Arden-Arcade 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 Arden-Arcade against the other 444 cities.


Who Arden-Arcade suits

Families

Schools land around the 44th percentile.

See the families priority ↑

Remote workers

18% already work from home.

See the remote-work priority ↑

Retirees

The weather beats 72% of cities and it is quieter than 65%.

See the retirees priority ↑


Common questions about living in Arden-Arcade

Is Arden-Arcade a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Arden-Arcade ranks 288th of 445 cities. It scores highest on transit, biking, and walkability, and lowest on crime and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Arden-Arcade expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $561,079. The overall cost of living runs about 14% above the national average. Set against a $87,804 median income, cost of living beats 26% of cities.

Is Arden-Arcade safe?

Arden-Arcade is safer than 4% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $741 per resident a year.

What is the weather like in Arden-Arcade?

July highs average about 97 degrees, and January highs near 58 with lows near 41. That works out to about 149 pleasant days a year, more than 72% of cities.

What are the best neighborhoods in Arden-Arcade?

Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Arden Park Vista, Del Paso Manor, and Arden Manor. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.

Is Arden-Arcade good for families?

Schools beat 44% of cities, crime safety beats 4%, and childcare runs $1,332 a month.

Is Arden-Arcade good for remote workers?

Cost of living against local pay beats 26% of cities, though advertised internet speeds beat only 52% of cities. About 18% of workers already work from home.


Compare Arden-Arcade with other cities


Sources and methodology

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

Arden-Arcade detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

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

Arden-Arcade 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.