Best PlacesFoothill Ranch, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Foothill Ranch, 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.
Foothill Ranch ranks 800th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on population health by a wide margin, and air quality ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Foothill Ranch
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.
Foothill Ranch's strengths and weaknesses
Where Foothill Ranch ranks high
- Health outlookBetter than 99% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 311 pleasant days a year, better than 99% of towns
- Household income$196,062 median, better than 99% of towns
- BikingBetter than 99% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 99% of towns
Where Foothill Ranch ranks low
- Air qualityBetter than only 3% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,494 a month, better than only 4% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 5% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Foothill Ranch
A household needs to earn about $307,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Foothill Ranch home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $196,062, 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 Foothill Ranch'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 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 Foothill Ranch
Foothill Ranch's age mix sits close to the national median, 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 Foothill Ranch.
Who works in Foothill Ranch, and how
Work in Foothill Ranch centers on manufacturing and professional & technical. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 67%
- Work from home 28%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Foothill Ranch
Foothill Ranch has more restaurants and bars per resident than 83% of towns and more parkland per resident than 86% of towns. The coast is about 16 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Foothill Ranch and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Foothill Ranch, month by month
Foothill Ranch sees roughly 311 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 81 degrees. January highs sit near 69, with lows near 48. Every month averages in that range.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 69° | 58° | 48° |
| April | 73° | 63° | 56° |
| July | 81° | 72° | 66° |
| October | 81° | 69° | 61° |
Flying in and out of Foothill Ranch
John Wayne/Orange County sits about 12 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 5.5 million passengers in 2025, with 80 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Foothill Ranch
Schools across Foothill Ranch average a B, better than 73% of towns.
Top high schools
- Northwood HighA · 79% proficient
- Trabuco Hills HighA · 74% proficient
- El Toro HighA− · 65% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Foothill Ranch school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Foothill Ranch 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 Foothill Ranch against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Foothill Ranch
Is Foothill Ranch a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Foothill Ranch ranks 800th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on population health, the weather, and high incomes, 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 Foothill Ranch expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,176,125. The overall cost of living runs about 46% above the national average. Set against a $196,062 median income, cost of living beats 95% of towns.
Is Foothill Ranch safe?
Foothill Ranch is safer than 46% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $344 per resident a year.
Compare Foothill Ranch with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Foothill Ranch. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Foothill Ranch 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.
Foothill Ranch detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Foothill Ranch: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Foothill Ranch: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Foothill Ranch: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Foothill Ranch: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Foothill Ranch 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.