Best PlacesBell Gardens, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Bell Gardens, 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 Gardens ranks 1,900th 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 Gardens
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 Gardens' strengths and weaknesses
Where Bell Gardens ranks high
- Big-city accessBetter than 99% of cities
- BikingBetter than 98% of cities
- Nice weatherabout 300 pleasant days a year, better than 98% of cities
- WalkabilityBetter than 98% of cities
- Cell coverageBetter than 94% of cities
Where Bell Gardens ranks low
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 1% of cities
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 1% of cities
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 1% of cities
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 1% of cities
- Air qualityBetter than only 4% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Bell Gardens
A household needs to earn about $149,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Bell Gardens home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $63,243, 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 Gardens' 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.
Who lives in Bell Gardens
Bell Gardens 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 Gardens.
Who works in Bell Gardens, and how
Work in Bell Gardens 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 6%
- Transit, walk, or bike 12%
Life in Bell Gardens
Bell Gardens has more restaurants and bars per resident than 67% of cities and more parkland per resident than 78% of cities. The coast is about 14 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Bell Gardens and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Bell Gardens, month by month
Bell Gardens sees roughly 300 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 Gardens
The nearest airport, Long Beach (Daugherty Field), is about 10 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Los Angeles International, about 14 miles away.
The best schools in and around Bell Gardens
Schools across Bell Gardens average a D+, better than 8% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Cesar E. Chavez ElementaryD · 19% proficient
- Bell Gardens ElementaryD− · 13% proficient
- Garfield ElementaryD− · 12% proficient
Top middle schools
- Bell Gardens IntermediateD− · 18% proficient
- Suva IntermediateD− · 13% proficient
Top high schools
- International Studies Lrng Center At Legacy High Sch ComplexB+ · 53% proficient
- Early College Academy-la Trade Tech CollegeB · 50% proficient
- Bell Gardens HighC− · 30% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Bell Gardens school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Bell Gardens 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 Gardens against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Bell Gardens suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 6% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Bell Gardens
Is Bell Gardens a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Bell Gardens ranks 1,900th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on big-city access, biking, and the weather, and lowest on thin health care access and civic engagement. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Bell Gardens expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $579,530. The overall cost of living runs about 33% above the national average. Set against a $63,243 median income, cost of living beats 0% of cities.
Is Bell Gardens safe?
Bell Gardens is safer than 24% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $415 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Bell Gardens?
July highs average about 85 degrees, and January highs near 70 with lows near 48. That works out to about 300 pleasant days a year, more than 98% of cities.
Is Bell Gardens good for families?
Schools beat 8% of cities, crime safety beats 24%, and childcare runs $1,130 a month.
Compare Bell Gardens with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Bell Gardens. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Bell Gardens 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 Gardens detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Bell Gardens: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Bell Gardens: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Bell Gardens: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Bell Gardens: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Bell Gardens 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.