Best PlacesBonsall, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Bonsall, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Bonsall ranks 10,323rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on the weather by a wide margin, and disaster risk is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Bonsall
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.
Bonsall's strengths and weaknesses
Where Bonsall ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 219 pleasant days a year, better than 99% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 96% of towns
- Household income$126,677 median, better than 94% of towns
- TransitBetter than 93% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 92% of towns
Where Bonsall ranks low
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 2% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 5% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,432 a month, better than only 5% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 18% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Bonsall
A household needs to earn about $238,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Bonsall home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $126,677, 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 Bonsall's effective rate of 0.61%, 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 Bonsall
Bonsall runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Bonsall.
Who works in Bonsall, and how
Work in Bonsall centers on retail trade and manufacturing. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 76%
- Work from home 21%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Bonsall
The coast is about 16 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Bonsall, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Bonsall, month by month
Bonsall sees roughly 219 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 81 degrees. January highs sit near 69, with lows near 40. The comfortable stretch runs February through November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 69° | 54° | 40° |
| April | 73° | 60° | 47° |
| July | 81° | 70° | 61° |
| October | 82° | 66° | 51° |
Flying in and out of Bonsall
The nearest airport, McClellan-Palomar, is about 12 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is San Diego International, about 38 miles away.
The best schools in and around Bonsall
Schools across Bonsall average a B−, better than 60% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Mission Meadows ElementaryD+ · 25% proficient
- LilacD+ · 21% proficient
Top high schools
- Bonsall HighA · 70% proficient
- Fallbrook HighB · 47% proficient
- Vista HighC · 33% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Bonsall school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Bonsall 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 Bonsall against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Bonsall
Is Bonsall a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Bonsall ranks 10,323rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on the weather, big-city access, and high incomes, and lowest on disaster risk and an overheated housing market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Bonsall expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $933,584. The overall cost of living runs about 28% above the national average. Set against a $126,677 median income, cost of living beats 76% of towns.
Is Bonsall safe?
Yes, Bonsall is safer than 56% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $303 per resident a year.
Compare Bonsall with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Bonsall. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Bonsall 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.
Bonsall detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Bonsall: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Bonsall: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Bonsall: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Bonsall: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Bonsall 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.