Best PlacesCrescent Park, Palo Alto, CA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Crescent Park, Palo Alto, 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.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Crescent Park, Palo Alto ranks 65th of 5,983 U.S. neighborhoods on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on good schools by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.

#65
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 Crescent Park, Palo Alto

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Crescent Park, Palo Alto 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.

Crescent Park, Palo Alto's strengths and weaknesses

#65Best US area overall
Top 3%Good schools
Top 3%High incomes
Top 5%Health care access
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Crescent Park, Palo Alto with other neighborhoods.

Where Crescent Park, Palo Alto ranks high

  • School gradeA+, better than 98% of neighborhoods
  • Household income$250,001 median, better than 98% of neighborhoods
  • Healthcare accessBetter than 97% of neighborhoods
  • Educational attainmentBetter than 96% of neighborhoods
  • Air qualityBetter than 95% of neighborhoods

Where Crescent Park, Palo Alto ranks low

  • Cheap childcare$2,106 a month, better than only 4% of neighborhoods
  • Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 20% of neighborhoods
  • Disaster safetyBetter than only 20% of neighborhoods
  • WalkabilityBetter than only 22% of neighborhoods
  • State fiscal healthBetter than only 26% of neighborhoods

What it costs to buy a home in Crescent Park, Palo Alto

A household needs to earn about $510,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Crescent Park, Palo Alto home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $250,001, so buying stretches a typical household.

Income to buy the median home
$510,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$11,889
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $2,000,001 home
Median rent
$3,501
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$10,197
Property tax$1,025
Homeowners insurance$667

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 Crescent Park, Palo Alto'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.

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

Who lives in Crescent Park, Palo Alto

Crescent Park, Palo Alto's age mix sits close to the national median, and households here run larger than average.

Median age
43
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
15%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.8
above the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1824%
18 to 3418%
35 to 4920%
50 to 6423%
65 and older15%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Crescent Park, Palo Alto.


Who works in Crescent Park, Palo Alto, and how

Work in Crescent Park, Palo Alto centers on professional & technical and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
52%
above the national average
Unemployment
2.4%
below the national average
Job growth
+6.4%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Professional & technical38%
Manufacturing13%
Information10%
Education8%
Finance & insurance8%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 37%
  • Work from home 52%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 11%

Life in Crescent Park, Palo Alto

The coast is about 25 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Crescent Park, Palo Alto, which the map shows.

To the coast
25 min
drive to the nearest ocean beaches

What the weather is like in Crescent Park, Palo Alto, month by month

Crescent Park, Palo Alto sees roughly 244 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 75 degrees. January highs sit near 59, with lows near 45. The comfortable stretch runs February through November.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January59°53°45°
April68°60°49°
July75°68°60°
October74°65°53°

Flying in and out of Crescent Park, Palo Alto

Norman Y Mineta San Jose International sits about 14 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 5.3 million passengers in 2025, with 67 nonstop destinations.

Nearest airport
SJC
Norman Y Mineta San Jose International, about 14 miles
Airport size
Medium hub
44th-busiest in the US, 67 nonstop destinations
Average drive
19 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Crescent Park, Palo Alto

Schools across Crescent Park, Palo Alto average an A+, better than 98% of neighborhoods.

Top middle schools

Top high schools

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


Crescent Park, Palo Alto 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 Crescent Park, Palo Alto against the other 5,982 neighborhoods.


Common questions about living in Crescent Park, Palo Alto

Is Crescent Park, Palo Alto a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Crescent Park, Palo Alto ranks 65th of 5,983 neighborhoods. It scores highest on good schools, high incomes, and health care access, 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 Crescent Park, Palo Alto expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $2,000,001. The overall cost of living runs about 144% above the national average. Set against a $250,001 median income, cost of living beats 79% of neighborhoods.

Is Crescent Park, Palo Alto safe?

Yes, Crescent Park, Palo Alto is safer than 73% of neighborhoods. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $339 per resident a year.


Compare Crescent Park, Palo Alto with other neighborhoods


Sources and methodology

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

Crescent Park, Palo Alto detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

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

Crescent Park, Palo Alto 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.