Best PlacesBenbow, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Benbow, 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.
Benbow ranks 48,185th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. Crime pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on short commutes.
The best neighborhoods in Benbow
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.
Benbow's strengths and weaknesses
Where Benbow ranks high
- Short commute19.3 minutes each way, better than 90% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 87% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 81% of towns
- QuietBetter than 78% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 107 pleasant days a year, better than 72% of towns
Where Benbow ranks low
- Crime safetyBetter than only 2% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 3% of towns
- Household income$38,533 median, better than only 3% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 8% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Benbow
A household needs to earn about $94,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Benbow home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $38,533, 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 Benbow's effective rate of 0.74%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Benbow
Benbow runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Benbow.
Who works in Benbow, and how
Work in Benbow centers on education and hospitality & food. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 82%
- Work from home 7%
- Transit, walk, or bike 12%
Life in Benbow
The coast is about 42 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Benbow, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Benbow, month by month
Benbow sees roughly 107 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 65 degrees. January highs sit near 55, with lows near 42. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 55° | 47° | 42° |
| April | 58° | 50° | 44° |
| July | 65° | 57° | 52° |
| October | 65° | 54° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Benbow
The nearest airport, California Redwood Coast- Humboldt County, is about 67 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Sacramento International, about 150 miles away.
The best schools in and around Benbow
Schools across Benbow average a C−, better than 33% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Whale Gulch ElementaryC · 35% proficient
- Leggett Valley ElementaryD · 21% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Benbow school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Benbow 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 Benbow against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Benbow
Is Benbow a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Benbow ranks 48,185th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on short commutes, tree cover, and an educated workforce, and lowest on crime 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 Benbow expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $360,900. The overall cost of living runs about 3% above the national average. Set against a $38,533 median income, cost of living beats 3% of towns.
Is Benbow safe?
Benbow is safer than 2% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $1,041 per resident a year.
Compare Benbow with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Benbow. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Benbow 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.
Benbow detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Benbow: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Benbow: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Benbow: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Benbow: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Benbow 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.