Best PlacesEast Side, Long Beach, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around East Side, Long Beach, 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.
East Side, Long Beach ranks 1,512th of 5,983 U.S. neighborhoods on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on the weather by a wide margin, and air quality ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in East Side, Long Beach
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.
East Side, Long Beach's strengths and weaknesses
Where East Side, Long Beach ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 304 pleasant days a year, better than 97% of neighborhoods
- Big-city accessBetter than 94% of neighborhoods
- BikingBetter than 92% of neighborhoods
- WalkabilityBetter than 91% of neighborhoods
- Internet speedBetter than 90% of neighborhoods
Where East Side, Long Beach ranks low
- Air qualityBetter than only 8% of neighborhoods
- Tree shadeBetter than only 16% of neighborhoods
- Short commute29.9 minutes each way, better than only 19% of neighborhoods
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 20% of neighborhoods
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 21% of neighborhoods
What it costs to buy a home in East Side, Long Beach
A household needs to earn about $215,000 a year to comfortably buy the median East Side, Long Beach home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $91,448, 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 East Side, Long Beach's effective rate of 0.72%, 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 East Side, Long Beach
East Side, Long Beach runs younger 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 East Side, Long Beach.
Who works in East Side, Long Beach, and how
Work in East Side, Long Beach centers on health care & social and hospitality & food. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 73%
- Work from home 19%
- Transit, walk, or bike 8%
Life in East Side, Long Beach
East Side, Long Beach has more parkland per resident than 82% of neighborhoods. The coast is about 2 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of East Side, Long Beach and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in East Side, Long Beach, month by month
East Side, Long Beach sees roughly 304 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 70, with lows near 47. Every month averages in that range.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 70° | 57° | 47° |
| April | 75° | 63° | 54° |
| July | 84° | 72° | 65° |
| October | 83° | 69° | 60° |
Flying in and out of East Side, Long Beach
The nearest airport, Long Beach (Daugherty Field), is about 3 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is John Wayne/Orange County, about 18 miles away.
The best schools in and around East Side, Long Beach
Schools across East Side, Long Beach average a B+, better than 88% of neighborhoods.
Top elementary schools
- Lowell ElementaryA · 68% proficient
- Fremont ElementaryA · 66% proficient
- Mann ElementaryC− · 30% proficient
Top middle schools
- Helen Keller MiddleA · 60% proficient
- Jefferson Leadership AcademiesC · 34% proficient
Top high schools
- Eunice Sato Academy Of Math & ScienceA+ · 83% proficient
- Wilson HighB · 46% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every East Side, Long Beach school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
East Side, Long Beach 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 East Side, Long Beach against the other 5,982 neighborhoods.
Who East Side, Long Beach suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 19% already work from home.
Common questions about living in East Side, Long Beach
Is East Side, Long Beach a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, East Side, Long Beach ranks 1,512th of 5,983 neighborhoods. It scores highest on the weather, big-city access, and biking, and lowest on air quality and tree cover. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is East Side, Long Beach expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $831,136. The overall cost of living runs about 36% above the national average. Set against a $91,448 median income, cost of living beats 33% of neighborhoods.
Is East Side, Long Beach safe?
East Side, Long Beach is safer than 42% of neighborhoods. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $527 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in East Side, Long Beach?
July highs average about 84 degrees, and January highs near 70 with lows near 47. That works out to about 304 pleasant days a year, more than 97% of neighborhoods.
Is East Side, Long Beach good for families?
Schools beat 88% of neighborhoods, crime safety beats 42%, and childcare runs $1,130 a month.
Compare East Side, Long Beach with other neighborhoods
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to East Side, Long Beach. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in East Side, Long Beach 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.
East Side, Long Beach detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for East Side, Long Beach: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in East Side, Long Beach: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of East Side, Long Beach: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in East Side, Long Beach: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
East Side, Long Beach 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.