Best PlacesForest Knolls, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Forest Knolls, 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.
Forest Knolls ranks 6,104th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on biking by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Forest Knolls
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.
Forest Knolls' strengths and weaknesses
Where Forest Knolls ranks high
- BikingBetter than 98% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 97% of towns
- TransitBetter than 96% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 96% of towns
- Household income$134,625 median, better than 96% of towns
Where Forest Knolls ranks low
- Cheap childcare$2,211 a month, better than only 1% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 11% of towns
- Short commute34.3 minutes each way, better than only 16% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 16% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Forest Knolls
A household needs to earn about $286,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Forest Knolls home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $134,625, 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 Forest Knolls' effective rate of 0.65%, 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 Forest Knolls
Forest Knolls 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 Forest Knolls.
Who works in Forest Knolls, and how
Work in Forest Knolls centers on professional & technical and information. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 64%
- Work from home 29%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Forest Knolls
The coast is about 26 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Forest Knolls, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Forest Knolls, month by month
Forest Knolls sees roughly 153 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 60, with lows near 42. The comfortable stretch runs April through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 60° | 50° | 42° |
| April | 71° | 57° | 46° |
| July | 87° | 66° | 52° |
| October | 79° | 61° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Forest Knolls
San Francisco International sits about 32 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 26.5 million passengers in 2025, with 193 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Forest Knolls
Schools across Forest Knolls average a B−, better than 65% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Bolinas-stinson ElementaryB · 50% proficient
- San Geronimo Valley ElementaryB · 45% proficient
- NicasioC− · 29% proficient
Top high schools
- Tamalpais HighA− · 64% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Forest Knolls school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Forest Knolls 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 Forest Knolls against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Forest Knolls
Is Forest Knolls a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Forest Knolls ranks 6,104th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on biking, an educated workforce, and transit, 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 Forest Knolls expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,118,330. The overall cost of living runs about 50% above the national average. Set against a $134,625 median income, cost of living beats 71% of towns.
Is Forest Knolls safe?
Forest Knolls is safer than 16% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $494 per resident a year.
Compare Forest Knolls with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Forest Knolls. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Forest Knolls 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.
Forest Knolls detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Forest Knolls: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Forest Knolls: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Forest Knolls: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Forest Knolls: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Forest Knolls 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.