Best PlacesBerkeley, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Berkeley, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Distance to the water drives a lot of the difference between one part and the next. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Berkeley ranks 61st of 445 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 17 minutes away. Its strengths are an educated workforce and biking. The cost shows up in crime, childcare costs, and empty homes.
The best neighborhoods in Berkeley
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.
The best areas in Berkeley
The parts of Berkeley, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the city.
North Berkeley, Kensington-San Francisco & Thousand Oaks
Local pay stretches further, incomes run higher, and prices have run up less.
Claremont
Tree cover is thicker and health care is easier to reach.
Westbrae
More households have young kids and fewer homes sit empty.
Berkeley Hills
More residents vote, though streets are more car-dependent.
South Berkeley & Bushrod
Biking is better, though fewer adults hold degrees.
Downtown Berkeley, Central Berkeley & North Beach
Commutes are shorter, though it is noisier.
SouthWest Berkeley
Scores close to Downtown Berkeley, Central Berkeley & North Beach, except that health outcomes score lower here.
Southwestern Berkeley
Elmwood
Homes cost less.
Scores across Berkeley run from about the 37th to the 98th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Berkeley's strengths and weaknesses
Berkeley ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. An educated workforce is the standout, in the top 1% of cities. Biking and walkability follow.
The one real hole is crime, near the bottom of the country. Childcare costs and empty homes also cost it ground. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Berkeley ranks high
- Educational attainmentBetter than 99% of cities
- BikingBetter than 99% of cities
- WalkabilityBetter than 97% of cities
- Health outlookBetter than 96% of cities
- TransitBetter than 95% of cities
Where Berkeley ranks low
- Crime safetyBetter than only 3% of cities
- Cheap childcare$2,077 a month, better than only 3% of cities
- Low vacancyBetter than only 9% of cities
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 11% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 15% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Berkeley
A household needs to earn about $370,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Berkeley home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $122,496, 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 Berkeley's effective rate of 0.81%, 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 Berkeley
Berkeley runs younger 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 Berkeley.
Who works in Berkeley, and how
Work in Berkeley centers on education and professional & technical. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 31%
- Work from home 37%
- Transit, walk, or bike 32%
Life in Berkeley
Berkeley has more restaurants and bars per resident than 86% of cities and more parkland per resident than 81% of cities. The coast is about 17 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Berkeley and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Berkeley, month by month
Berkeley sees roughly 216 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 74 degrees. January highs sit near 61, with lows near 43. The comfortable stretch runs March through November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 61° | 52° | 43° |
| April | 68° | 57° | 49° |
| July | 74° | 63° | 56° |
| October | 76° | 63° | 51° |
Flying in and out of Berkeley
San Francisco Bay Oakland International sits about 11 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 Berkeley
Schools across Berkeley average a B+, better than 88% of cities.
Top high schools
- Berkeley HighA+ · 84% proficient
- Miramonte HighA+ · 82% proficient
- Middle College HighA · 75% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Berkeley school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Berkeley 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 Berkeley against the other 444 cities.
Who Berkeley suits
Retirees
The weather beats 88% of cities and health care access beats 66%.
Common questions about living in Berkeley
Is Berkeley a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Berkeley ranks 61st of 445 cities. It scores highest on an educated workforce, biking, and walkability, and lowest on crime and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Berkeley expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,411,906. The overall cost of living runs about 43% above the national average. Set against a $122,496 median income, cost of living beats 50% of cities.
Is Berkeley safe?
Berkeley is safer than 3% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $788 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Berkeley?
July highs average about 74 degrees, and January highs near 61 with lows near 43. That works out to about 216 pleasant days a year, more than 88% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Berkeley?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are North Berkeley, Kensington-San Francisco & Thousand Oaks, Claremont, and Westbrae. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Berkeley good for families?
Schools beat 88% of cities, crime safety beats 3%, and childcare runs $2,077 a month.
Is Berkeley good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 50% of cities, though advertised internet speeds beat only 34% of cities. About 37% of workers already work from home.
Compare Berkeley with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Berkeley. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Berkeley 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.
Berkeley detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Berkeley: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Berkeley: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Berkeley: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Berkeley: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Berkeley 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.