Best PlacesBoulder Oaks, CA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Boulder Oaks, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Boulder Oaks ranks 45,456th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on the weather by a wide margin, and air quality ranks lowest.

#45,456
of 50,333 towns
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
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of 50,333 towns
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The best neighborhoods in Boulder Oaks

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Boulder Oaks area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
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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.

Boulder Oaks' strengths and weaknesses

Top 3%The weather
Top 10%Big-city access
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Boulder Oaks with other towns.

Where Boulder Oaks ranks high

  • Nice weatherabout 182 pleasant days a year, better than 98% of towns
  • Big-city accessBetter than 90% of towns
  • Local economyBetter than 89% of towns
  • Low vacancyBetter than 74% of towns
  • Household income$86,271 median, better than 73% of towns

Where Boulder Oaks ranks low

  • Air qualityBetter than only 1% of towns
  • Disaster safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
  • Voter turnoutBetter than only 3% of towns
  • School gradeD, better than only 5% of towns
  • Cheap childcare$1,432 a month, better than only 5% of towns

What it costs to buy a home in Boulder Oaks

A household needs to earn about $101,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Boulder Oaks home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $86,271, so buying stretches a typical household.

Income to buy the median home
$101,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$2,353
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $391,702 home
Median rent
$1,814
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$1,997
Property tax$225
Homeowners insurance$131

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 Boulder Oaks' effective rate of 0.69%, 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 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Boulder Oaks

Boulder Oaks runs older than the country, and households here run larger than average.

Median age
48
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
23%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.9
above the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1820%
18 to 3416%
35 to 4919%
50 to 6422%
65 and older23%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Boulder Oaks.


Who works in Boulder Oaks, and how

Work in Boulder Oaks centers on education and construction. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
20%
above the national average
Unemployment
3.2%
below the national average
Job growth
+4.9%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Education20%
Construction12%
Admin & support services11%
Wholesale trade10%
Health care & social8%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 77%
  • Work from home 20%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 4%

Life in Boulder Oaks

The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Boulder Oaks.


What the weather is like in Boulder Oaks, month by month

Boulder Oaks sees roughly 182 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 68, with lows near 43. The comfortable stretch runs February through November.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January68°54°43°
April74°61°52°
July87°74°65°
October82°67°56°

Flying in and out of Boulder Oaks

San Diego International sits about 42 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 12.7 million passengers in 2025, with 121 nonstop destinations.

Nearest airport
SAN
San Diego International, about 42 miles
Airport size
Large hub
24th-busiest in the US, 121 nonstop destinations
Average drive
59 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Boulder Oaks

Schools across Boulder Oaks average a D, better than 5% of towns.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Boulder Oaks school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Boulder Oaks 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 Boulder Oaks against the other 50,332 towns.


Common questions about living in Boulder Oaks

Is Boulder Oaks a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Boulder Oaks ranks 45,456th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on the weather, big-city access, and a strong job market, and lowest on air quality and disaster risk. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Boulder Oaks expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $391,702. The overall cost of living runs about 19% above the national average. Set against a $86,271 median income, cost of living beats 28% of towns.

Is Boulder Oaks safe?

Boulder Oaks is safer than 20% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $489 per resident a year.


Compare Boulder Oaks with other towns


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Boulder Oaks. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Boulder Oaks 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.

Boulder Oaks detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Boulder Oaks: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Boulder Oaks: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Boulder Oaks: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Boulder Oaks: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Boulder Oaks detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.