Best PlacesAtherton, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Atherton, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Atherton ranks 1,679th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on the weather by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Atherton
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.
Atherton's strengths and weaknesses
Where Atherton ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 244 pleasant days a year, better than 99% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 99% of towns
- Household income$232,095 median, better than 99% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 99% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 99% of towns
Where Atherton ranks low
- Cheap childcare$2,233 a month, better than only 1% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 8% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 11% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 15% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Atherton
A household needs to earn about $504,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Atherton home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $232,095, so buying stretches a typical household.
Where the monthly payment goes
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 Atherton's effective rate of 0.65%, 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.
Who lives in Atherton
Atherton runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Atherton.
Who works in Atherton, and how
Work in Atherton centers on professional & technical and finance & insurance. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 52%
- Work from home 37%
- Transit, walk, or bike 11%
Life in Atherton
The coast is about 23 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Atherton, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Atherton, month by month
Atherton sees roughly 244 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 75 degrees. January highs sit near 59, with lows near 45. The comfortable stretch runs February through November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 59° | 53° | 45° |
| April | 68° | 60° | 49° |
| July | 75° | 68° | 60° |
| October | 74° | 65° | 53° |
Flying in and out of Atherton
San Francisco International sits about 15 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 26.5 million passengers in 2025, with 193 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Atherton
Schools across Atherton average an A−, better than 82% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Las Lomitas ElementaryA+ · 83% proficient
Top middle schools
- La Entrada MiddleA+ · 87% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Atherton school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Atherton 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 Atherton against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Atherton
Is Atherton a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Atherton ranks 1,679th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on the weather, an educated workforce, and high incomes, and lowest on childcare costs and crime. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Atherton expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,967,911. The overall cost of living runs about 127% above the national average. Set against a $232,095 median income, cost of living beats 88% of towns.
Is Atherton safe?
Atherton is safer than 8% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $643 per resident a year.
Compare Atherton with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Atherton. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Atherton 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.
Atherton detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Atherton: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Atherton: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Atherton: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Atherton: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Atherton detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- 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.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.