Best PlacesCastlemont, Oakland, CA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Castlemont, Oakland, 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.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Castlemont, Oakland ranks 4,881st of 5,983 U.S. neighborhoods on the BestNeighborhood index. Thin health care access pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on the weather.

#4,881
of 5,983 neighborhoods
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 5,983 neighborhoods
Your rank
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The best neighborhoods in Castlemont, Oakland

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Castlemont, Oakland area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
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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.

Castlemont, Oakland's strengths and weaknesses

Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Castlemont, Oakland with other neighborhoods.

Where Castlemont, Oakland ranks high

  • Nice weatherabout 223 pleasant days a year, better than 90% of neighborhoods
  • QuietBetter than 89% of neighborhoods
  • Big-city accessBetter than 88% of neighborhoods
  • Air qualityBetter than 83% of neighborhoods
  • TransitBetter than 82% of neighborhoods

Where Castlemont, Oakland ranks low

  • Healthcare accessBetter than only 3% of neighborhoods
  • Household income$40,763 median, better than only 5% of neighborhoods
  • Cheap childcare$2,082 a month, better than only 5% of neighborhoods
  • Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 6% of neighborhoods
  • Educational attainmentBetter than only 6% of neighborhoods

What it costs to buy a home in Castlemont, Oakland

A household needs to earn about $160,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Castlemont, Oakland home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $40,763, so buying stretches a typical household.

Income to buy the median home
$160,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$3,742
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $597,892 home
Median rent
$1,579
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$3,048
Property tax$494
Homeowners insurance$199

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 Castlemont, Oakland's effective rate of 0.99%, 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.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Castlemont, Oakland

Castlemont, Oakland runs younger than the country, and households here run larger than average.

Median age
33
younger than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
8%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
3.1
above the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1827%
18 to 3427%
35 to 4920%
50 to 6418%
65 and older8%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Castlemont, Oakland.


Who works in Castlemont, Oakland, and how

Work in Castlemont, Oakland centers on construction and transportation & warehousing. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
4%
below the national average
Unemployment
6.3%
above the national average
Job growth
+3.0%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Construction13%
Transportation & warehousing11%
Hospitality & food11%
Health care & social11%
Admin & support services10%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 82%
  • Work from home 4%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 14%

Life in Castlemont, Oakland

The coast is about 23 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Castlemont, Oakland, which the map shows.

To the coast
23 min
drive to the nearest ocean beaches

What the weather is like in Castlemont, Oakland, month by month

Castlemont, Oakland sees roughly 223 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 74 degrees. January highs sit near 61, with lows near 43. The comfortable stretch runs March through November.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January61°52°43°
April68°57°49°
July74°63°56°
October76°63°51°

Flying in and out of Castlemont, Oakland

San Francisco Bay Oakland International sits about 4 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 4.5 million passengers in 2025, with 64 nonstop destinations.

Nearest airport
OAK
San Francisco Bay Oakland International, about 4 miles
Airport size
Medium hub
48th-busiest in the US, 64 nonstop destinations
Average drive
8 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Castlemont, Oakland

Schools across Castlemont, Oakland average a C, better than 42% of neighborhoods.

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Castlemont, Oakland school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Castlemont, Oakland 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 Castlemont, Oakland against the other 5,982 neighborhoods.


Common questions about living in Castlemont, Oakland

Is Castlemont, Oakland a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Castlemont, Oakland ranks 4,881st of 5,983 neighborhoods. It scores highest on the weather, quiet, and big-city access, and lowest on thin health care access and low incomes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Castlemont, Oakland expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $597,892. The overall cost of living runs about 25% above the national average. Set against a $40,763 median income, cost of living beats 6% of neighborhoods.

Is Castlemont, Oakland safe?

Castlemont, Oakland is safer than 32% of neighborhoods. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $626 per resident a year.


Compare Castlemont, Oakland with other neighborhoods


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Castlemont, Oakland. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Castlemont, Oakland 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.

Castlemont, Oakland detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Castlemont, Oakland: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Castlemont, Oakland: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Castlemont, Oakland: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Castlemont, Oakland: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Castlemont, Oakland detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.