Best PlacesFontana, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Fontana, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Distance to the water drives a lot of the difference between one part and the next. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Fontana ranks 326th of 445 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 47 minutes away. Its strengths are few empty homes and big-city access. The cost shows up in air quality, education levels, and thin health care access.
The best neighborhoods in Fontana
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.
The best areas in Fontana
The parts of Fontana, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the city.
Hunter's Ridge, Coyote Canyon & Rancho Fontana
Local pay stretches further, more adults hold degrees, and incomes run higher.
California Landings, Summit Heights & Citrus Heights
More residents vote, though streets are more car-dependent.
Walnut Village-Fontana
Commutes are longer and fewer households have young kids.
West End
Biking is better.
Southridge Village
Prices have run up less and schools score higher.
South Park Fontana
Crime runs higher and health care is harder to reach.
Downtown Fontana
Homes cost less.
Scores across Fontana run from about the 7th to the 84th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Fontana's strengths and weaknesses
Fontana lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Few empty homes is the standout, in the top 1% of cities. Big-city access and the weather follow.
The one real hole is air quality, near the bottom of the country. Education levels and thin health care access also cost it ground. That varies block to block rather than evenly, and the map below shows where.
Where Fontana ranks high
- Low vacancyBetter than 99% of cities
- Big-city accessBetter than 90% of cities
- Nice weatherabout 207 pleasant days a year, better than 87% of cities
- Cell coverageBetter than 86% of cities
- Local economyBetter than 84% of cities
Where Fontana ranks low
- Air qualityBetter than only 1% of cities
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 7% of cities
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 7% of cities
- Short commute33.0 minutes each way, better than only 7% of cities
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 10% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Fontana
A household needs to earn about $146,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Fontana home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $104,880, 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 Fontana's effective rate of 0.79%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 10 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Fontana
Fontana runs younger 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 Fontana.
Who works in Fontana, and how
Work in Fontana centers on transportation & warehousing and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 83%
- Work from home 13%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Fontana
Fontana has more parkland per resident than 86% of cities. The coast is about 47 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Fontana and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Fontana, month by month
Fontana sees roughly 207 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 96 degrees. January highs sit near 69, with lows near 43. The comfortable stretch runs October through June.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 69° | 55° | 43° |
| April | 79° | 63° | 51° |
| July | 96° | 79° | 65° |
| October | 87° | 70° | 57° |
Flying in and out of Fontana
Ontario International sits about 9 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 3.5 million passengers in 2025, with 62 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Fontana
Schools across Fontana average a C+, better than 54% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Ted Porter ElementaryF · 3% proficient
Top middle schools
- Joe BacaD+ · 26% proficient
- Ethel Kucera MiddleD+ · 25% proficient
- Ruth O. Harris MiddleD · 22% proficient
Top high schools
- Henry J. Kaiser HighA+ · 95% proficient
- Summit HighA · 75% proficient
- Fontana HighA · 75% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Fontana school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Fontana 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 Fontana against the other 444 cities.
Who Fontana suits
Common questions about living in Fontana
Is Fontana a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Fontana ranks 326th of 445 cities. It scores highest on few empty homes, big-city access, and the weather, and lowest on air quality and education levels. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Fontana expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $560,326. The overall cost of living runs about 18% above the national average. Set against a $104,880 median income, cost of living beats 37% of cities.
Is Fontana safe?
Fontana is safer than 53% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $397 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Fontana?
July highs average about 96 degrees, and January highs near 69 with lows near 43. That works out to about 207 pleasant days a year, more than 87% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Fontana?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Hunter's Ridge, Coyote Canyon & Rancho Fontana, California Landings, Summit Heights & Citrus Heights, and Walnut Village-Fontana. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Fontana good for families?
Schools beat 54% of cities, crime safety beats 53%, and childcare runs $1,252 a month.
Is Fontana good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 37% of cities, though advertised internet speeds beat only 24% of cities. About 13% of workers already work from home.
Compare Fontana with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Fontana. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Fontana 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.
Fontana detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Fontana: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Fontana: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Fontana: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Fontana: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Fontana 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.