Best PlacesCity Center, Glendale, CA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around City Center, Glendale, 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

City Center, Glendale ranks 3,528th of 5,983 U.S. neighborhoods on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on walkability by a wide margin, and air quality ranks lowest.

#3,528
of 5,983 neighborhoods
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
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of 5,983 neighborhoods
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The best neighborhoods in City Center, Glendale

Map of the best neighborhoods in the City Center, Glendale 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.

City Center, Glendale's strengths and weaknesses

Top 5%Walkability
Top 10%Big-city access
Top 10%The weather
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare City Center, Glendale with other neighborhoods.

Where City Center, Glendale ranks high

  • WalkabilityBetter than 95% of neighborhoods
  • Big-city accessBetter than 95% of neighborhoods
  • Nice weatherabout 245 pleasant days a year, better than 94% of neighborhoods
  • TransitBetter than 94% of neighborhoods
  • Cell coverageBetter than 85% of neighborhoods

Where City Center, Glendale ranks low

  • Air qualityBetter than only 4% of neighborhoods
  • Internet speedBetter than only 4% of neighborhoods
  • Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 6% of neighborhoods
  • Tree shadeBetter than only 6% of neighborhoods
  • Disaster safetyBetter than only 8% of neighborhoods

What it costs to buy a home in City Center, Glendale

A household needs to earn about $173,000 a year to comfortably buy the median City Center, Glendale home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $69,501, so buying stretches a typical household.

Income to buy the median home
$173,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$4,041
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $669,130 home
Median rent
$2,241
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$3,412
Property tax$406
Homeowners insurance$223

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 City Center, Glendale's effective rate of 0.73%, 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 City Center, Glendale

City Center, Glendale's age mix sits close to the national median, and households here run smaller than average.

Median age
43
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
22%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.2
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1814%
18 to 3425%
35 to 4922%
50 to 6417%
65 and older22%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for City Center, Glendale.


Who works in City Center, Glendale, and how

Work in City Center, Glendale centers on health care & social and professional & technical. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.

Work from home
25%
above the national average
Unemployment
8.3%
above the national average
Job growth
+0.6%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social14%
Professional & technical13%
Retail trade8%
Education8%
Information7%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 66%
  • Work from home 25%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 9%

Life in City Center, Glendale

City Center, Glendale has more restaurants and bars per resident than 92% of neighborhoods and more late-night spots per resident than 81% of neighborhoods. The coast is about 19 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of City Center, Glendale and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
340
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 250.1 per 10,000 residents, more than 92% of neighborhoods
Coffee shops
52
about 38.2 per 10,000 residents, more than 93% of neighborhoods
Open past 10pm
~55
food and drink venues open late, about 40.6 per 10,000 residents, more than 81% of neighborhoods
To the coast
19 min
drive to the nearest ocean beaches

What the weather is like in City Center, Glendale, month by month

City Center, Glendale sees roughly 245 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 69, with lows near 44. The comfortable stretch runs September through July.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January69°56°44°
April77°63°53°
July90°75°65°
October84°69°57°

Flying in and out of City Center, Glendale

Bob Hope sits about 7 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 3.1 million passengers in 2025, with 54 nonstop destinations.

Nearest airport
BUR
Bob Hope, about 7 miles
Airport size
Medium hub
57th-busiest in the US, 54 nonstop destinations
Average drive
10 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around City Center, Glendale

Schools across City Center, Glendale average a C+, better than 56% of neighborhoods.

Top high schools

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


City Center, Glendale 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 City Center, Glendale against the other 5,982 neighborhoods.


Common questions about living in City Center, Glendale

Is City Center, Glendale a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, City Center, Glendale ranks 3,528th of 5,983 neighborhoods. It scores highest on walkability, big-city access, and the weather, and lowest on air quality and internet speeds. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is City Center, Glendale expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $669,130. The overall cost of living runs about 44% above the national average. Set against a $69,501 median income, cost of living beats 6% of neighborhoods.

Is City Center, Glendale safe?

City Center, Glendale is safer than 40% of neighborhoods. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $566 per resident a year.


Compare City Center, Glendale with other neighborhoods


Sources and methodology

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

City Center, Glendale detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

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

City Center, Glendale 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.