Best PlacesBell, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Bell, 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.
Bell ranks 1,907th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on big-city access by a wide margin, and thin health care access ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Bell
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.
Bell's strengths and weaknesses
Where Bell ranks high
- Big-city accessBetter than 99% of cities
- Nice weatherabout 302 pleasant days a year, better than 98% of cities
- WalkabilityBetter than 98% of cities
- TransitBetter than 95% of cities
- Low vacancyBetter than 88% of cities
Where Bell ranks low
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 1% of cities
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 1% of cities
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 1% of cities
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 1% of cities
- Air qualityBetter than only 3% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Bell
A household needs to earn about $146,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Bell home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $61,074, 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 Bell's effective rate of 0.69%, 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 Bell
Bell runs younger than the country, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Bell.
Who works in Bell, and how
Work in Bell centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 82%
- Work from home 5%
- Transit, walk, or bike 13%
Life in Bell
Bell has more restaurants and bars per resident than 66% of cities. The coast is about 15 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Bell and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Bell, month by month
Bell sees roughly 302 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 70, with lows near 48. Every month averages in that range.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 70° | 58° | 48° |
| April | 76° | 64° | 55° |
| July | 85° | 73° | 65° |
| October | 82° | 69° | 60° |
Flying in and out of Bell
The nearest airport, Jack Northrop Field/Hawthorne Municipal, is about 9 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Los Angeles International, about 13 miles away.
The best schools in and around Bell
Schools across Bell average a D+, better than 18% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Rosewood ParkD · 18% proficient
Top high schools
- Early College Academy-la Trade Tech CollegeB · 50% proficient
- Bell Senior HighB · 49% proficient
- Bell Gardens HighC− · 30% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Bell school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Bell 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 Bell against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Bell suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 5% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Bell
Is Bell a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Bell ranks 1,907th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on big-city access, the weather, and walkability, and lowest on thin health care access and the cost of living against local pay. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Bell expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $568,797. The overall cost of living runs about 33% above the national average. Set against a $61,074 median income, cost of living beats 0% of cities.
Is Bell safe?
Bell is safer than 21% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $430 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Bell?
July highs average about 85 degrees, and January highs near 70 with lows near 48. That works out to about 302 pleasant days a year, more than 98% of cities.
Is Bell good for families?
Schools beat 18% of cities, crime safety beats 21%, and childcare runs $1,130 a month.
Compare Bell with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Bell. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Bell 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.
Bell detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Bell: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Bell: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Bell: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Bell: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Bell 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.