Best PlacesBenicia, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Benicia, 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.
Benicia ranks 909th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. Disaster risk pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on clean air.
The best neighborhoods in Benicia
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.
Benicia's strengths and weaknesses
Where Benicia ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 90% of cities
- Nice weatherabout 176 pleasant days a year, better than 88% of cities
- Household income$138,219 median, better than 86% of cities
- Big-city accessBetter than 79% of cities
- Healthcare accessBetter than 74% of cities
Where Benicia ranks low
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 9% of cities
- Crime safetyBetter than only 14% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 14% of cities
- Cell coverageBetter than only 18% of cities
- Tree shadeBetter than only 19% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Benicia
A household needs to earn about $211,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Benicia home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $138,219, 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 Benicia's effective rate of 0.71%, 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 Benicia
Benicia runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Benicia.
Who works in Benicia, and how
Work in Benicia centers on health care & social and professional & technical. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 73%
- Work from home 23%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Benicia
Benicia has more restaurants and bars per resident than 72% of cities and more parkland per resident than 94% of cities. The coast is about 34 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Benicia and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Benicia, month by month
Benicia sees roughly 176 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 61, with lows near 41. The comfortable stretch runs March through November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 61° | 51° | 41° |
| April | 75° | 60° | 48° |
| July | 92° | 72° | 58° |
| October | 82° | 65° | 52° |
Flying in and out of Benicia
San Francisco Bay Oakland International sits about 24 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 4.5 million passengers in 2025, with 64 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Benicia
Schools across Benicia average a B, better than 65% of cities.
Top high schools
- Benicia HighA · 75% proficient
- Angelo Rodriguez HighB+ · 51% proficient
- Alhambra Senior HighB · 48% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Benicia school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Benicia 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 Benicia against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Benicia suits
Retirees
The weather beats 88% of cities and health care access beats 74%.
Common questions about living in Benicia
Is Benicia a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Benicia ranks 909th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on clean air, the weather, and high incomes, and lowest on disaster risk and crime. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Benicia expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $818,503. The overall cost of living runs about 34% above the national average. Set against a $138,219 median income, cost of living beats 63% of cities.
Is Benicia safe?
Benicia is safer than 14% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $496 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Benicia?
July highs average about 92 degrees, and January highs near 61 with lows near 41. That works out to about 176 pleasant days a year, more than 88% of cities.
Is Benicia good for families?
Schools beat 65% of cities, crime safety beats 14%, and childcare runs $1,462 a month.
Compare Benicia with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Benicia. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Benicia 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.
Benicia detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Benicia: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Benicia: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Benicia: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Benicia: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Benicia 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.