Best PlacesDaly City, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Daly City, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Distance to the water drives a lot of the difference between one part and the next. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Daly City ranks 117th of 445 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 2 minutes away. Its strengths are population health and transit. The cost shows up in childcare costs, taxes, and civic engagement.
The best neighborhoods in Daly City
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.
The best areas in Daly City
The parts of Daly City, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the city.
Westlake-San Francisco & Broadmoor
Local pay stretches further, it is quieter, and more households have young kids.
Crocker, Bayshore & Southern Hills
Streets are more walkable and incomes run higher.
Hillside
Fewer homes sit empty and homes cost less.
St. Francis
Scores close to Hillside, except that disaster risk is higher here.
Lakeshore
Biking is better and tree cover is thicker.
Serramonte
More adults hold degrees and health care is easier to reach.
Original Daly City
Transit reaches more jobs, though prices have run up more.
Scores across Daly City run from about the 28th to the 93rd percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Daly City's strengths and weaknesses
Daly City lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Population health, transit, and high incomes carry most of that.
The one real hole is childcare costs, near the bottom of the country. Taxes and civic engagement also cost it ground. Cost swings more from one part of Daly City to another than it does between Daly City and its neighbors, which the map below shows.
Where Daly City ranks high
- Health outlookBetter than 96% of cities
- TransitBetter than 93% of cities
- Household income$131,630 median, better than 92% of cities
- Nice weatherabout 222 pleasant days a year, better than 90% of cities
- WalkabilityBetter than 88% of cities
Where Daly City ranks low
- Cheap childcare$2,236 a month, better than only 1% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 15% of cities
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 16% of cities
- Local economyBetter than only 18% of cities
- Low vacancyBetter than only 20% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Daly City
A household needs to earn about $286,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Daly City home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $131,630, 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 Daly City's effective rate of 0.60%, 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 Daly City
Daly City 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 Daly City.
Who works in Daly City, and how
Work in Daly City centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 68%
- Work from home 16%
- Transit, walk, or bike 16%
Life in Daly City
Daly City has more restaurants and bars per resident than 66% of cities and more parkland per resident than 81% of cities. The coast is about 2 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Daly City and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Daly City, month by month
Daly City sees roughly 222 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 74 degrees. January highs sit near 60, with lows near 46. The comfortable stretch runs April through November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 60° | 53° | 46° |
| April | 68° | 57° | 49° |
| July | 74° | 62° | 56° |
| October | 75° | 62° | 54° |
Flying in and out of Daly City
San Francisco International sits about 7 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 26.5 million passengers in 2025, with 193 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Daly City
Schools across Daly City average a B−, better than 54% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Skyline ElementaryB · 48% proficient
- Thomas Edison ElementaryB · 48% proficient
- Buri Buri ElementaryB · 47% proficient
Top middle schools
- Lipman MiddleA · 65% proficient
- Ingrid B. Lacy MiddleA− · 58% proficient
- Westborough MiddleB+ · 51% proficient
Top high schools
- Oceana HighA− · 65% proficient
- Westmoor HighA− · 65% proficient
- Jefferson HighB+ · 53% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Daly City school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Daly City 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 Daly City against the other 444 cities.
Who Daly City suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 16% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Daly City
Is Daly City a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Daly City ranks 117th of 445 cities. It scores highest on population health, transit, and high incomes, 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 Daly City expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,122,640. The overall cost of living runs about 42% above the national average. Set against a $131,630 median income, cost of living beats 53% of cities.
Is Daly City safe?
Daly City is safer than 29% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $479 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Daly City?
July highs average about 74 degrees, and January highs near 60 with lows near 46. That works out to about 222 pleasant days a year, more than 90% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Daly City?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Westlake-San Francisco & Broadmoor, Crocker, Bayshore & Southern Hills, and Hillside. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Daly City good for families?
Schools beat 54% of cities, crime safety beats 29%, and childcare runs $2,236 a month.
Is Daly City good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 53% of cities, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 64% of cities. About 16% of workers already work from home.
Compare Daly City with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Daly City. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Daly City 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.
Daly City detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Daly City: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Daly City: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Daly City: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Daly City: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Daly City 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.