Best PlacesCosta Mesa, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Costa Mesa, 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.
Costa Mesa ranks 80th of 445 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 4 minutes away. Its strengths are the weather and big-city access. The cost shows up in an overheated housing market, air quality, and childcare costs.
The best neighborhoods in Costa Mesa
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.
Costa Mesa's strengths and weaknesses
Costa Mesa ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. The weather is the standout, in the top 1% of cities. Big-city access and biking follow.
The one real hole is an overheated housing market, near the bottom of the country. Air quality and childcare costs also cost it ground. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Costa Mesa ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 327 pleasant days a year, better than 99% of cities
- Big-city accessBetter than 92% of cities
- BikingBetter than 87% of cities
- Cell coverageBetter than 87% of cities
- Health outlookBetter than 87% of cities
Where Costa Mesa ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 4% of cities
- Air qualityBetter than only 14% of cities
- Cheap childcare$1,494 a month, better than only 15% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 15% of cities
- QuietBetter than only 18% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Costa Mesa
A household needs to earn about $294,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Costa Mesa home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $118,040, 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 Costa Mesa's effective rate of 0.61%, 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 Costa Mesa
Costa Mesa runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Costa Mesa.
Who works in Costa Mesa, and how
Work in Costa Mesa centers on professional & technical and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 70%
- Work from home 23%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Costa Mesa
Costa Mesa has more restaurants and bars per resident than 90% of cities and more parkland per resident than 90% of cities. The coast is about 4 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Costa Mesa and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Costa Mesa, month by month
Costa Mesa sees roughly 327 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 81 degrees. January highs sit near 69, with lows near 48. Every month averages in that range.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 69° | 58° | 48° |
| April | 73° | 63° | 56° |
| July | 81° | 72° | 66° |
| October | 81° | 69° | 61° |
Flying in and out of Costa Mesa
John Wayne/Orange County sits about 3 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 5.5 million passengers in 2025, with 80 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Costa Mesa
Schools across Costa Mesa average a B−, better than 57% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Maude B. Davis ElementaryA · 71% proficient
- Mariners ElementaryA · 68% proficient
- Newport ElementaryA · 65% proficient
Top middle schools
- Horace Ensign IntermediateB+ · 49% proficient
- Charles W. Tewinkle MiddleD+ · 26% proficient
- Isaac L. Sowers MiddleD+ · 25% proficient
Top high schools
- Fountain Valley HighA+ · 87% proficient
- Edison HighA · 74% proficient
- Early College HighA− · 65% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Costa Mesa school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Costa Mesa 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 Costa Mesa against the other 444 cities.
Who Costa Mesa suits
Common questions about living in Costa Mesa
Is Costa Mesa a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Costa Mesa ranks 80th of 445 cities. It scores highest on the weather, big-city access, and biking, and lowest on an overheated housing market and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Costa Mesa expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,155,227. The overall cost of living runs about 59% above the national average. Set against a $118,040 median income, cost of living beats 18% of cities.
Is Costa Mesa safe?
Yes, Costa Mesa is safer than 62% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $366 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Costa Mesa?
July highs average about 81 degrees, and January highs near 69 with lows near 48. That works out to about 327 pleasant days a year, more than 99% of cities.
Is Costa Mesa good for families?
Schools beat 57% of cities, crime safety beats 62%, and childcare runs $1,494 a month.
Is Costa Mesa good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 18% of cities, though advertised internet speeds beat only 45% of cities. About 23% of workers already work from home.
Compare Costa Mesa with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Costa Mesa. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Costa Mesa 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.
Costa Mesa detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Costa Mesa: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Costa Mesa: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Costa Mesa: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Costa Mesa: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Costa Mesa 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.