Best PlacesBayside, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Bayside, 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.
Bayside ranks 23,864th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on an educated workforce by a wide margin, and disaster risk is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Bayside
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.
Bayside's strengths and weaknesses
Where Bayside ranks high
- Educational attainmentBetter than 96% of towns
- Short commute17.5 minutes each way, better than 94% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 89% of towns
- TransitBetter than 88% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 88% of towns
Where Bayside ranks low
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 6% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 8% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,269 a month, better than only 12% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Bayside
A household needs to earn about $154,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Bayside home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $84,253, 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 Bayside's effective rate of 0.57%, 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 Bayside
Bayside runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Bayside.
Who works in Bayside, and how
Work in Bayside centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 74%
- Work from home 21%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Bayside
The coast is about 14 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Bayside, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Bayside, month by month
Bayside sees roughly 114 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 64 degrees. January highs sit near 57, with lows near 40. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 57° | 49° | 40° |
| April | 58° | 50° | 42° |
| July | 64° | 57° | 52° |
| October | 64° | 54° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Bayside
The nearest airport, California Redwood Coast- Humboldt County, is about 11 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Sacramento International, about 197 miles away.
The best schools in and around Bayside
Schools across Bayside average a B−, better than 62% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Jacoby CreekA · 62% proficient
- Garfield ElementaryA− · 60% proficient
- Freshwater ElementaryB− · 40% proficient
Top middle schools
- Sunny Brae MiddleB− · 42% proficient
- Freshwater Charter MiddleC− · 30% proficient
- Catherine L. Zane MiddleD · 24% proficient
Top high schools
- Arcata HighB+ · 58% proficient
- Eureka Senior HighC+ · 35% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Bayside school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Bayside 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 Bayside against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Bayside
Is Bayside a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Bayside ranks 23,864th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on an educated workforce, short commutes, and population health, and lowest on disaster risk and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Bayside expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $607,922. The overall cost of living runs about 8% above the national average. Set against a $84,253 median income, cost of living beats 49% of towns.
Is Bayside safe?
Bayside is safer than 19% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $472 per resident a year.
Compare Bayside with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Bayside. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Bayside 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.
Bayside detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Bayside: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Bayside: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Bayside: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Bayside: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Bayside 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.