Best PlacesCarmel, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Carmel, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Carmel ranks 3,976th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on the weather by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Carmel
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.
Carmel's strengths and weaknesses
Where Carmel ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 212 pleasant days a year, better than 99% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 98% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 98% of towns
- Household income$150,920 median, better than 97% of towns
- TransitBetter than 97% of towns
Where Carmel ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 2% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,371 a month, better than only 7% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 19% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 21% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Carmel
A household needs to earn about $437,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Carmel home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $150,920, 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 Carmel's effective rate of 0.60%, 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 Carmel
Carmel 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 Carmel.
Who works in Carmel, and how
Work in Carmel centers on professional & technical and education. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 70%
- Work from home 20%
- Transit, walk, or bike 9%
Life in Carmel
Carmel has more restaurants and bars per resident than 90% of towns. The coast is about 5 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Carmel and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Carmel, month by month
Carmel sees roughly 212 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 69 degrees. January highs sit near 63, with lows near 43. The comfortable stretch runs April through November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 63° | 52° | 43° |
| April | 65° | 56° | 48° |
| July | 69° | 60° | 54° |
| October | 72° | 60° | 50° |
Flying in and out of Carmel
The nearest airport, Monterey Regional, is about 4 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Norman Y Mineta San Jose International, about 57 miles away.
The best schools in and around Carmel
Schools across Carmel average an A−, better than 84% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Carmel River ElementaryA · 66% proficient
Top middle schools
- Carmel MiddleA · 66% proficient
Top high schools
- Carmel HighA · 70% proficient
- Greenfield HighD · 23% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Carmel school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Carmel 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 Carmel against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Carmel
Is Carmel a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Carmel ranks 3,976th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on the weather, an educated workforce, and health care access, and lowest on an overheated housing market and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Carmel expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,719,053. The overall cost of living runs about 75% above the national average. Set against a $150,920 median income, cost of living beats 68% of towns.
Is Carmel safe?
Carmel is safer than 25% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $430 per resident a year.
Compare Carmel with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Carmel. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Carmel 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.
Carmel detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Carmel: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Carmel: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Carmel: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Carmel: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Carmel 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.