Best PlacesCerritos, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Cerritos, 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.
Cerritos ranks 398th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on few empty homes by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Cerritos
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.
Cerritos' strengths and weaknesses
Where Cerritos ranks high
- Low vacancyBetter than 99% of cities
- Big-city accessBetter than 98% of cities
- Nice weatherabout 280 pleasant days a year, better than 98% of cities
- BikingBetter than 96% of cities
- Health outlookBetter than 96% of cities
Where Cerritos ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 2% of cities
- Air qualityBetter than only 6% of cities
- Short commute32.3 minutes each way, better than only 14% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 14% of cities
- Tree shadeBetter than only 16% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Cerritos
A household needs to earn about $241,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Cerritos home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $139,584, 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 Cerritos' effective rate of 0.63%, 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 Cerritos
Cerritos runs older than the country, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Cerritos.
Who works in Cerritos, and how
Work in Cerritos centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 78%
- Work from home 20%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Cerritos
Cerritos has more restaurants and bars per resident than 84% of cities and more parkland per resident than 86% of cities. The coast is about 12 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Cerritos and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Cerritos, month by month
Cerritos sees roughly 280 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 71, with lows near 46. The comfortable stretch runs September through July.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 71° | 57° | 46° |
| April | 77° | 64° | 54° |
| July | 87° | 74° | 66° |
| October | 85° | 70° | 58° |
Flying in and out of Cerritos
The nearest airport, Long Beach (Daugherty Field), is about 6 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is John Wayne/Orange County, about 17 miles away.
The best schools in and around Cerritos
Schools across Cerritos average an A, better than 95% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Gonsalves (joe A.) ElementaryA+ · 95% proficient
- Leal (frank C.) ElementaryA+ · 91% proficient
- Wittmann (helen) ElementaryA+ · 88% proficient
Top middle schools
- Carmenita MiddleA+ · 98% proficient
- Tetzlaff (martin B.) MiddleA+ · 90% proficient
- Ross (faye) MiddleA+ · 75% proficient
Top high schools
- Mayfair HighA+ · 83% proficient
- Norwalk HighC+ · 39% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Cerritos school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Cerritos 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 Cerritos against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Cerritos suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 20% already work from home.
Retirees
The weather beats 98% of cities and health care access beats 65%.
Common questions about living in Cerritos
Is Cerritos a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Cerritos ranks 398th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on few empty homes, big-city access, and the weather, and lowest on noise and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Cerritos expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $942,961. The overall cost of living runs about 42% above the national average. Set against a $139,584 median income, cost of living beats 53% of cities.
Is Cerritos safe?
Cerritos is safer than 30% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $391 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Cerritos?
July highs average about 87 degrees, and January highs near 71 with lows near 46. That works out to about 280 pleasant days a year, more than 98% of cities.
Is Cerritos good for families?
Schools beat 95% of cities, crime safety beats 30%, and childcare runs $1,130 a month.
Compare Cerritos with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Cerritos. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Cerritos 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.
Cerritos detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Cerritos: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Cerritos: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Cerritos: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Cerritos: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Cerritos 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.