Best PlacesFelton, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Felton, 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.
Felton ranks 4,553rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on the weather by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Felton
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.
Felton's strengths and weaknesses
Where Felton ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 185 pleasant days a year, better than 98% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 96% of towns
- Household income$139,140 median, better than 96% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 96% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 96% of towns
Where Felton ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,701 a month, better than only 1% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 8% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 18% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Felton
A household needs to earn about $236,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Felton home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $139,140, 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 Felton's effective rate of 0.66%, 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 Felton
Felton 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 Felton.
Who works in Felton, and how
Work in Felton centers on manufacturing and professional & technical. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 72%
- Work from home 26%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Felton
Felton has more restaurants and bars per resident than 68% of towns. The coast is about 12 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Felton and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Felton, month by month
Felton sees roughly 185 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 73 degrees. January highs sit near 63, with lows near 40. The comfortable stretch runs April through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 63° | 50° | 40° |
| April | 68° | 55° | 44° |
| July | 73° | 60° | 53° |
| October | 77° | 60° | 48° |
Flying in and out of Felton
Norman Y Mineta San Jose International sits about 22 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 5.3 million passengers in 2025, with 67 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Felton
Schools across Felton average a B, better than 67% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Brook Knoll ElementaryA− · 61% proficient
- Vine Hill ElementaryA− · 58% proficient
- Lakeside ElementaryB− · 42% proficient
Top middle schools
- Scotts Valley MiddleA · 62% proficient
Top high schools
- Los Gatos HighA · 78% proficient
- Scotts Valley HighB+ · 58% proficient
- San Lorenzo Valley HighB+ · 53% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Felton school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Felton 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 Felton against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Felton
Is Felton a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Felton ranks 4,553rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on the weather, population health, and high incomes, and lowest on childcare costs and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Felton expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $922,713. The overall cost of living runs about 33% above the national average. Set against a $139,140 median income, cost of living beats 84% of towns.
Is Felton safe?
Felton is safer than 33% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $372 per resident a year.
Compare Felton with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Felton. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Felton 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.
Felton detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Felton: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Felton: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Felton: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Felton: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Felton 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.