Best PlacesEastside Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Eastside Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, 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.
Eastside Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara ranks 1,828th of 5,983 U.S. neighborhoods on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on short commutes by a wide margin, and disaster risk is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Eastside Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara
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.
Eastside Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara's strengths and weaknesses
Where Eastside Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara ranks high
- Short commute14.9 minutes each way, better than 98% of neighborhoods
- Low property taxBetter than 94% of neighborhoods
- Nice weatherabout 247 pleasant days a year, better than 94% of neighborhoods
- Low vacancyBetter than 93% of neighborhoods
- WalkabilityBetter than 81% of neighborhoods
Where Eastside Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara ranks low
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 13% of neighborhoods
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 14% of neighborhoods
- Cheap childcare$1,613 a month, better than only 16% of neighborhoods
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 17% of neighborhoods
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 20% of neighborhoods
What it costs to buy a home in Eastside Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara
A household needs to earn about $266,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Eastside Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $111,986, 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 Eastside Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara's effective rate of 0.46%, 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 Eastside Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara
Eastside Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara 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 Eastside Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara.
Who works in Eastside Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, and how
Work in Eastside Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara centers on retail trade and health care & social. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 70%
- Work from home 9%
- Transit, walk, or bike 22%
Life in Eastside Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara
The coast is about 1 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Eastside Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Eastside Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, month by month
Eastside Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara sees roughly 247 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 75 degrees. January highs sit near 67, with lows near 41. The comfortable stretch runs March through November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 67° | 54° | 41° |
| April | 71° | 59° | 48° |
| July | 75° | 65° | 57° |
| October | 77° | 63° | 51° |
Flying in and out of Eastside Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara
The nearest airport, Santa Barbara Municipal, is about 9 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Bob Hope, about 77 miles away.
The best schools in and around Eastside Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara
Schools across Eastside Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara average a B−, better than 66% of neighborhoods.
Top middle schools
- Santa Barbara Junior HighB+ · 50% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Eastside Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Eastside Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara 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 Eastside Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara against the other 5,982 neighborhoods.
Common questions about living in Eastside Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara
Is Eastside Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Eastside Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara ranks 1,828th of 5,983 neighborhoods. It scores highest on short commutes, low property taxes, and the weather, and lowest on disaster risk and civic engagement. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Eastside Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,065,130. The overall cost of living runs about 62% above the national average. Set against a $111,986 median income, cost of living beats 30% of neighborhoods.
Is Eastside Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara safe?
Yes, Eastside Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara is safer than 75% of neighborhoods. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $341 per resident a year.
Compare Eastside Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara with other neighborhoods
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Eastside Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Eastside Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara 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.
Eastside Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Eastside Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Eastside Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Eastside Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Eastside Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Eastside Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara 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.