Best PlacesEcho Lake, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Echo Lake, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Echo Lake ranks 12,371st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on high incomes by a wide margin, and air quality ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Echo Lake
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.
Echo Lake's strengths and weaknesses
Where Echo Lake ranks high
- Household income$147,255 median, better than 97% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 96% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 94% of towns
- Short commute17.8 minutes each way, better than 94% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 93% of towns
Where Echo Lake ranks low
- Air qualityBetter than only 1% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,556 a month, better than only 2% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 17% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Echo Lake
A household needs to earn about $187,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Echo Lake home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $147,255, 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 Echo Lake's effective rate of 0.72%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Echo Lake
Echo Lake 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 Echo Lake.
Who works in Echo Lake, and how
Work in Echo Lake centers on health care & social and hospitality & food. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 65%
- Work from home 23%
- Transit, walk, or bike 12%
Life in Echo Lake
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Echo Lake.
What the weather is like in Echo Lake, month by month
Echo Lake sees roughly 92 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 44, with lows near 18. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 44° | 30° | 18° |
| April | 57° | 41° | 27° |
| July | 83° | 64° | 43° |
| October | 65° | 45° | 28° |
Flying in and out of Echo Lake
The nearest airport, Reno/Tahoe International, is about 47 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Sacramento International, about 87 miles away.
The best schools in and around Echo Lake
Schools across Echo Lake average a C+, better than 51% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Silver Fork ElementaryB · 50% proficient
Top high schools
- El Dorado HighB− · 45% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Echo Lake school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Echo Lake 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 Echo Lake against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Echo Lake
Is Echo Lake a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Echo Lake ranks 12,371st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on high incomes, heat safety, and population health, and lowest on air quality and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Echo Lake expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $722,229. The overall cost of living runs about 29% above the national average. Set against a $147,255 median income, cost of living beats 93% of towns.
Is Echo Lake safe?
Echo Lake is safer than 18% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $493 per resident a year.
Compare Echo Lake with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Echo Lake. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Echo Lake 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.
Echo Lake detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Echo Lake: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Echo Lake: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Echo Lake: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Echo Lake: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Echo Lake 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.