Best PlacesCaliente, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Caliente, 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.
Caliente ranks 48,962nd 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.
The best neighborhoods in Caliente
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.
Caliente's strengths and weaknesses
Where Caliente ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 164 pleasant days a year, better than 96% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 90% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 89% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 66% of towns
- School gradeC, better than 51% of towns
Where Caliente ranks low
- Air qualityBetter than only 1% of towns
- Short commute44.9 minutes each way, better than only 2% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 2% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 3% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 5% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Caliente
A household needs to earn about $76,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Caliente home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $59,320, 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 Caliente's effective rate of 0.84%, 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 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Caliente
Caliente runs older 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 Caliente.
Who works in Caliente, and how
Work in Caliente centers on professional & technical and public administration. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 73%
- Work from home 23%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Caliente
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Caliente.
What the weather is like in Caliente, month by month
Caliente sees roughly 164 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 52, with lows near 33. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 52° | 41° | 33° |
| April | 64° | 51° | 40° |
| July | 89° | 76° | 60° |
| October | 72° | 56° | 42° |
Flying in and out of Caliente
The nearest airport, Meadows Field, is about 32 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Bob Hope, about 84 miles away.
The best schools in and around Caliente
Schools across Caliente average a C, better than 51% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Cummings Valley ElementaryC+ · 37% proficient
- Tompkins ElementaryC− · 26% proficient
- Piute Mountain ElementaryD · 19% proficient
Top middle schools
- Jacobsen MiddleC− · 29% proficient
Top high schools
- Kern Valley HighA · 75% proficient
- Foothill HighA · 75% proficient
- Arvin HighB+ · 57% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Caliente school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Caliente 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 Caliente against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Caliente
Is Caliente a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Caliente ranks 48,962nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on the weather, a strong job market, and big-city access, and lowest on air quality and long commutes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Caliente expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $288,162. The overall cost of living runs about 5% above the national average. Set against a $59,320 median income, cost of living beats 12% of towns.
Is Caliente safe?
Caliente is safer than 12% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $557 per resident a year.
Compare Caliente with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Caliente. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Caliente 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.
Caliente detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Caliente: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Caliente: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Caliente: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Caliente: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Caliente 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.