Best PlacesCardiff By The Sea, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Cardiff By The Sea, 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.
Cardiff By The Sea ranks 570th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on the weather by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Cardiff By The Sea
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.
Cardiff By The Sea's strengths and weaknesses
Where Cardiff By The Sea ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 336 pleasant days a year, better than 99% of towns
- BikingBetter than 99% of towns
- Household income$195,854 median, better than 99% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 98% of towns
- TransitBetter than 97% of towns
Where Cardiff By The Sea ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 2% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 4% 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 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Cardiff By The Sea
A household needs to earn about $428,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Cardiff By The Sea home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $195,854, 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 Cardiff By The Sea's effective rate of 0.57%, 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 Cardiff By The Sea
Cardiff By The Sea's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Cardiff By The Sea.
Who works in Cardiff By The Sea, and how
Work in Cardiff By The Sea centers on professional & technical and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 65%
- Work from home 31%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Cardiff By The Sea
Cardiff By The Sea has more restaurants and bars per resident than 68% of towns and more parkland per resident than 90% of towns. The coast is about 2 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Cardiff By The Sea and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Cardiff By The Sea, month by month
Cardiff By The Sea sees roughly 336 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 75 degrees. January highs sit near 67, with lows near 47. Every month averages in that range.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 67° | 56° | 47° |
| April | 68° | 60° | 53° |
| July | 75° | 69° | 65° |
| October | 76° | 67° | 59° |
Flying in and out of Cardiff By The Sea
The nearest airport, McClellan-Palomar, is about 7 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is San Diego International, about 21 miles away.
The best schools in and around Cardiff By The Sea
Schools across Cardiff By The Sea average an A−, better than 85% of towns.
Top middle schools
- Earl Warren MiddleB+ · 50% proficient
- Oak Crest MiddleB · 45% proficient
Top high schools
- Canyon Crest AcademyA · 68% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Cardiff By The Sea school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Cardiff By The Sea 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 Cardiff By The Sea against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Cardiff By The Sea
Is Cardiff By The Sea a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Cardiff By The Sea ranks 570th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on the weather, biking, and high incomes, and lowest on noise 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 Cardiff By The Sea expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,690,394. The overall cost of living runs about 75% above the national average. Set against a $195,854 median income, cost of living beats 87% of towns.
Is Cardiff By The Sea safe?
Cardiff By The Sea is safer than 23% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $430 per resident a year.
Compare Cardiff By The Sea with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Cardiff By The Sea. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Cardiff By The Sea 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.
Cardiff By The Sea detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Cardiff By The Sea: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Cardiff By The Sea: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Cardiff By The Sea: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Cardiff By The Sea: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Cardiff By The Sea 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.