Best PlacesDowntown Burlingame, Burlingame, CA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Downtown Burlingame, Burlingame, 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

Downtown Burlingame, Burlingame ranks 1,320th of 5,983 U.S. neighborhoods on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on the weather by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.

#1,320
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
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Downtown Burlingame, Burlingame

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Downtown Burlingame, Burlingame area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

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.

Downtown Burlingame, Burlingame's strengths and weaknesses

Top 10%The weather
Top 10%Good schools
Top 10%Walkability
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Downtown Burlingame, Burlingame with other neighborhoods.

Where Downtown Burlingame, Burlingame ranks high

  • Nice weatherabout 234 pleasant days a year, better than 92% of neighborhoods
  • School gradeA, better than 92% of neighborhoods
  • WalkabilityBetter than 91% of neighborhoods
  • Cell coverageBetter than 90% of neighborhoods
  • Health outlookBetter than 89% of neighborhoods

Where Downtown Burlingame, Burlingame ranks low

  • Cheap childcare$2,233 a month, better than only 2% of neighborhoods
  • Crime safetyBetter than only 9% of neighborhoods
  • Low vacancyBetter than only 14% of neighborhoods
  • Local economyBetter than only 16% of neighborhoods
  • Disaster safetyBetter than only 19% of neighborhoods

What it costs to buy a home in Downtown Burlingame, Burlingame

A household needs to earn about $392,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Downtown Burlingame, Burlingame home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $129,683, so buying stretches a typical household.

Income to buy the median home
$392,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$9,157
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $1,529,179 home
Median rent
$2,548
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$7,797
Property tax$850
Homeowners insurance$510

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 Downtown Burlingame, Burlingame's effective rate of 0.67%, 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 Downtown Burlingame, Burlingame

Downtown Burlingame, Burlingame's age mix sits close to the national median, and households here run smaller than average.

Median age
40
about the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
14%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.0
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1816%
18 to 3424%
35 to 4925%
50 to 6422%
65 and older14%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Downtown Burlingame, Burlingame.


Who works in Downtown Burlingame, Burlingame, and how

Work in Downtown Burlingame, Burlingame centers on professional & technical and hospitality & food. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.

Work from home
23%
above the national average
Unemployment
6.1%
above the national average
Job growth
−2.7%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Professional & technical27%
Hospitality & food13%
Education11%
Health care & social7%
Transportation & warehousing7%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 58%
  • Work from home 23%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 19%

Life in Downtown Burlingame, Burlingame

Downtown Burlingame, Burlingame has more restaurants and bars per resident than 94% of neighborhoods. The coast is about 12 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Downtown Burlingame, Burlingame and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
101
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 299.9 per 10,000 residents, more than 94% of neighborhoods
Coffee shops
24
about 71.3 per 10,000 residents, more than 97% of neighborhoods
To the coast
12 min
drive to the nearest ocean beaches

What the weather is like in Downtown Burlingame, Burlingame, month by month

Downtown Burlingame, Burlingame sees roughly 234 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.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January60°53°46°
April68°57°49°
July74°62°56°
October75°62°54°

Flying in and out of Downtown Burlingame, Burlingame

San Francisco International sits about 3 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 26.5 million passengers in 2025, with 193 nonstop destinations.

Nearest airport
SFO
San Francisco International, about 3 miles
Airport size
Large hub
9th-busiest in the US, 193 nonstop destinations
Average drive
8 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Downtown Burlingame, Burlingame

Schools across Downtown Burlingame, Burlingame average an A, better than 92% of neighborhoods.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

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


Downtown Burlingame, Burlingame 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 Downtown Burlingame, Burlingame against the other 5,982 neighborhoods.


Common questions about living in Downtown Burlingame, Burlingame

Is Downtown Burlingame, Burlingame a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Downtown Burlingame, Burlingame ranks 1,320th of 5,983 neighborhoods. It scores highest on the weather, good schools, and walkability, and lowest on childcare costs and crime. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Downtown Burlingame, Burlingame expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $1,529,179. The overall cost of living runs about 79% above the national average. Set against a $129,683 median income, cost of living beats 52% of neighborhoods.

Is Downtown Burlingame, Burlingame safe?

Downtown Burlingame, Burlingame is safer than 9% of neighborhoods. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $951 per resident a year.


Compare Downtown Burlingame, Burlingame with other neighborhoods


Sources and methodology

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

Downtown Burlingame, Burlingame detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

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

Downtown Burlingame, Burlingame 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.