Best PlacesBrisbane, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Brisbane, 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.
Brisbane ranks 2,682nd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on the weather by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Brisbane
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.
Brisbane's strengths and weaknesses
Where Brisbane ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 229 pleasant days a year, better than 99% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 99% of towns
- BikingBetter than 99% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 99% of towns
- TransitBetter than 99% of towns
Where Brisbane ranks low
- Cheap childcare$2,233 a month, better than only 1% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 6% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 6% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Brisbane
A household needs to earn about $317,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Brisbane home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $161,522, 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 Brisbane's effective rate of 0.70%, 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 Brisbane
Brisbane runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Brisbane.
Who works in Brisbane, and how
Work in Brisbane centers on professional & technical and health care & social. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 54%
- Work from home 33%
- Transit, walk, or bike 13%
Life in Brisbane
Brisbane has more restaurants and bars per resident than 87% of towns. The coast is about 10 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Brisbane and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Brisbane, month by month
Brisbane sees roughly 229 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 74 degrees. January highs sit near 60, with lows near 46. The comfortable stretch runs April through November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 60° | 53° | 46° |
| April | 68° | 57° | 49° |
| July | 74° | 62° | 56° |
| October | 75° | 62° | 54° |
Flying in and out of Brisbane
San Francisco International sits about 5 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 26.5 million passengers in 2025, with 193 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Brisbane
Schools across Brisbane average a B+, better than 75% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Brisbane ElementaryA− · 58% proficient
- Panorama ElementaryB− · 40% proficient
- Martin ElementaryD− · 13% proficient
Top middle schools
- Lipman MiddleA · 65% proficient
- Parkway Heights MiddleD · 21% proficient
Top high schools
- Jefferson HighB+ · 53% proficient
- South San Francisco HighB− · 44% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Brisbane school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Brisbane 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 Brisbane against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Brisbane
Is Brisbane a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Brisbane ranks 2,682nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on the weather, walkability, and biking, and lowest on childcare costs and disaster risk. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Brisbane expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,230,781. The overall cost of living runs about 39% above the national average. Set against a $161,522 median income, cost of living beats 92% of towns.
Is Brisbane safe?
Brisbane is safer than 10% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $621 per resident a year.
Compare Brisbane with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Brisbane. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Brisbane 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.
Brisbane detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Brisbane: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Brisbane: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Brisbane: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Brisbane: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Brisbane 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.