Best PlacesButte Valley, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Butte Valley, 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.
Butte Valley ranks 34,824th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. Summer heat pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on the weather.
The best neighborhoods in Butte Valley
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.
Butte Valley's strengths and weaknesses
Where Butte Valley ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 134 pleasant days a year, better than 87% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 86% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 80% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than 75% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 74% of towns
Where Butte Valley ranks low
- Heat safetyBetter than only 2% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 8% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,205 a month, better than only 14% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 14% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Butte Valley
A household needs to earn about $120,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Butte Valley home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $76,415, 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 Butte Valley's effective rate of 0.58%, 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 Butte Valley
Butte Valley runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Butte Valley.
Who works in Butte Valley, and how
Work in Butte Valley centers on health care & social and real estate. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 73%
- Work from home 24%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Butte Valley
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Butte Valley.
What the weather is like in Butte Valley, month by month
Butte Valley sees roughly 134 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 100 degrees. January highs sit near 59, with lows near 41. The comfortable stretch runs March through May and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 59° | 50° | 41° |
| April | 77° | 62° | 48° |
| July | 100° | 83° | 66° |
| October | 82° | 66° | 51° |
Flying in and out of Butte Valley
Sacramento International sits about 66 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 6.8 million passengers in 2025, with 85 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Butte Valley
Schools across Butte Valley average a C−, better than 25% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Durham ElementaryB · 45% proficient
- Concow ElementaryD · 19% proficient
Top middle schools
- Durham IntermediateC− · 31% proficient
Top high schools
- Durham HighB · 47% proficient
- Oroville HighC+ · 35% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Butte Valley school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Butte Valley 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 Butte Valley against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Butte Valley
Is Butte Valley a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Butte Valley ranks 34,824th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on the weather, an educated workforce, and a strong job market, and lowest on summer heat and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Butte Valley expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $472,660. The overall cost of living runs about 4% above the national average. Set against a $76,415 median income, cost of living beats 39% of towns.
Is Butte Valley safe?
Butte Valley is safer than 22% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $449 per resident a year.
Compare Butte Valley with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Butte Valley. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Butte Valley 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.
Butte Valley detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Butte Valley: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Butte Valley: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Butte Valley: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Butte Valley: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Butte Valley 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.