Best PlacesCarmet, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Carmet, 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.
Carmet ranks 34,975th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on the weather by a wide margin, and the cost of living against local pay is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Carmet
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.
Carmet's strengths and weaknesses
Where Carmet ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 195 pleasant days a year, better than 99% of towns
- Short commute13.1 minutes each way, better than 99% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 96% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 96% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 91% of towns
Where Carmet ranks low
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 5% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 7% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 8% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Carmet
A household needs to earn about $211,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Carmet home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $63,837, 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 Carmet's effective rate of 0.54%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Carmet
Carmet 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 Carmet.
Who works in Carmet, and how
Work in Carmet centers on admin & support services and professional & technical. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 53%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 33%
Life in Carmet
The coast is about 2 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Carmet, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Carmet, month by month
Carmet sees roughly 195 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 63 degrees. January highs sit near 57, with lows near 46. The comfortable stretch runs July through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 57° | 51° | 46° |
| April | 57° | 51° | 47° |
| July | 63° | 55° | 51° |
| October | 63° | 55° | 50° |
Flying in and out of Carmet
The nearest airport, Charles M Schulz/Sonoma County, is about 16 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is San Francisco International, about 65 miles away.
The best schools in and around Carmet
Schools across Carmet average a C, better than 31% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Monte Rio ElementaryC · 30% proficient
Top high schools
- Tomales HighD+ · 25% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Carmet school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Carmet 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 Carmet against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Carmet
Is Carmet a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Carmet ranks 34,975th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on the weather, short commutes, and clean air, and lowest on the cost of living against local pay and crime. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Carmet expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $838,358. The overall cost of living runs about 50% above the national average. Set against a $63,837 median income, cost of living beats 5% of towns.
Is Carmet safe?
Carmet is safer than 7% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $679 per resident a year.
Compare Carmet with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Carmet. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Carmet 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.
Carmet detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Carmet: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Carmet: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Carmet: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Carmet: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Carmet 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.