Best PlacesCorte Madera, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Corte Madera, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Corte Madera ranks 649th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on biking by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Corte Madera
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.
Corte Madera's strengths and weaknesses
Where Corte Madera ranks high
- BikingBetter than 99% of towns
- Household income$217,455 median, better than 99% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 99% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 99% of towns
- TransitBetter than 98% of towns
Where Corte Madera ranks low
- Cheap childcare$2,211 a month, better than only 1% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 8% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 10% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 12% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Corte Madera
A household needs to earn about $464,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Corte Madera home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $217,455, 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 Corte Madera'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.
Who lives in Corte Madera
Corte Madera runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Corte Madera.
Who works in Corte Madera, and how
Work in Corte Madera centers on professional & technical and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 49%
- Work from home 42%
- Transit, walk, or bike 10%
Life in Corte Madera
Corte Madera has more restaurants and bars per resident than 86% of towns. The coast is about 9 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Corte Madera and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Corte Madera, month by month
Corte Madera sees roughly 167 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 60, with lows near 42. The comfortable stretch runs April through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 60° | 50° | 42° |
| April | 71° | 57° | 46° |
| July | 87° | 66° | 52° |
| October | 79° | 61° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Corte Madera
San Francisco Bay Oakland International sits about 21 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 4.5 million passengers in 2025, with 64 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Corte Madera
Schools across Corte Madera average an A, better than 91% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Neil Cummins ElementaryA+ · 76% proficient
- CoveA · 68% proficient
- Bahia Vista ElementaryD− · 15% proficient
Top middle schools
- Del Mar MiddleA+ · 77% proficient
- Hall MiddleA · 62% proficient
- James B. Davidson MiddleC · 33% proficient
Top high schools
- Tamalpais HighA− · 64% proficient
- Terra Linda HighB+ · 53% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Corte Madera school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Corte Madera 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 Corte Madera against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Corte Madera
Is Corte Madera a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Corte Madera ranks 649th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on biking, high incomes, and an educated workforce, and lowest on childcare costs and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Corte Madera expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,792,497. The overall cost of living runs about 54% above the national average. Set against a $217,455 median income, cost of living beats 98% of towns.
Is Corte Madera safe?
Corte Madera is safer than 14% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $531 per resident a year.
Compare Corte Madera with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Corte Madera. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Corte Madera 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.
Corte Madera detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Corte Madera: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Corte Madera: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Corte Madera: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Corte Madera: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Corte Madera 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.