Best PlacesDrytown, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Drytown, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Drytown ranks 15,645th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on the weather by a wide margin, and taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Drytown
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.
Drytown's strengths and weaknesses
Where Drytown ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 168 pleasant days a year, better than 96% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 90% of towns
- Household income$95,257 median, better than 81% of towns
- QuietBetter than 80% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 75% of towns
Where Drytown ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 12% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 17% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 19% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Drytown
A household needs to earn about $168,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Drytown home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $95,257, 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 Drytown's effective rate of 0.62%, 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 Drytown
Drytown runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Drytown.
Who works in Drytown, and how
Work in Drytown centers on construction and professional & technical. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 64%
- Work from home 24%
- Transit, walk, or bike 12%
Life in Drytown
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Drytown.
What the weather is like in Drytown, month by month
Drytown sees roughly 168 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 91 degrees. January highs sit near 53, with lows near 41. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 53° | 46° | 41° |
| April | 65° | 55° | 47° |
| July | 91° | 80° | 70° |
| October | 73° | 64° | 57° |
Flying in and out of Drytown
Sacramento International sits about 43 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 6.8 million passengers in 2025, with 85 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Drytown
Schools across Drytown average a C−, better than 21% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Sutter Creek ElementaryC− · 28% proficient
- Ione ElementaryD+ · 23% proficient
- Plymouth ElementaryD+ · 23% proficient
Top middle schools
- Ione Junior HighD · 23% proficient
Top high schools
- Argonaut HighC+ · 35% proficient
- Amador HighC · 32% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Drytown school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Drytown 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 Drytown against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Drytown
Is Drytown a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Drytown ranks 15,645th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on the weather, big-city access, and high incomes, and lowest on taxes and internet speeds. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Drytown expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $658,885. The overall cost of living runs about 14% above the national average. Set against a $95,257 median income, cost of living beats 53% of towns.
Is Drytown safe?
Yes, Drytown is safer than 75% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $263 per resident a year.
Compare Drytown with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Drytown. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Drytown 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.
Drytown detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Drytown: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Drytown: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Drytown: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Drytown: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Drytown 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.