Best PlacesGarberville, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Garberville, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Garberville ranks 43,612th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on walkability by a wide margin, and the cost of living against local pay is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Garberville
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.
Garberville's strengths and weaknesses
Where Garberville ranks high
- WalkabilityBetter than 98% of towns
- TransitBetter than 96% of towns
- Short commute18.2 minutes each way, better than 93% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 88% of towns
- BikingBetter than 87% of towns
Where Garberville ranks low
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 3% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 4% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 4% of towns
- Household income$44,965 median, better than only 7% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Garberville
A household needs to earn about $104,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Garberville home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $44,965, 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 Garberville's effective rate of 0.81%, 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 Garberville
Garberville 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 Garberville.
Who works in Garberville, and how
Work in Garberville centers on retail trade and education. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 86%
- Work from home 5%
- Transit, walk, or bike 10%
Life in Garberville
Garberville has more restaurants and bars per resident than 94% of towns. The coast is about 43 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Garberville and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Garberville, month by month
Garberville sees roughly 123 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 65 degrees. January highs sit near 55, with lows near 42. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 55° | 47° | 42° |
| April | 58° | 50° | 44° |
| July | 65° | 57° | 52° |
| October | 65° | 54° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Garberville
The nearest airport, California Redwood Coast- Humboldt County, is about 64 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Sacramento International, about 152 miles away.
The best schools in and around Garberville
Schools across Garberville average a C, better than 36% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Whale Gulch ElementaryC · 35% proficient
- Leggett Valley ElementaryD · 21% proficient
- Round Valley ElementaryD− · 12% proficient
Top high schools
- Round Valley HighD+ · 25% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Garberville school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Garberville 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 Garberville against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Garberville
Is Garberville a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Garberville ranks 43,612th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on walkability, transit, and short commutes, and lowest on the cost of living against local pay and civic engagement. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Garberville expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $397,517. The overall cost of living runs about 3% above the national average. Set against a $44,965 median income, cost of living beats 3% of towns.
Is Garberville safe?
Garberville is safer than 4% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $768 per resident a year.
Compare Garberville with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Garberville. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Garberville 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.
Garberville detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Garberville: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Garberville: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Garberville: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Garberville: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Garberville 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.