Best PlacesGarden Grove, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Garden Grove, 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.
Garden Grove ranks 195th of 445 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 11 minutes away. Its strengths are the weather and big-city access. The cost shows up in education levels, noise, and the cost of living against local pay.
The best neighborhoods in Garden Grove
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 Garden Grove
The parts of Garden Grove, 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.
Southwest
Biking is better, incomes run higher, and local pay stretches further.
Downtown Garden Grove
More adults hold degrees, though fewer households have young kids.
Riverview West
Streets are more walkable, though fewer residents vote.
Santa Anita
It is noisier and health care is harder to reach.
Scores across Garden Grove run from about the 19th to the 93rd percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Garden Grove's strengths and weaknesses
Garden Grove lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. The weather, big-city access, and low crime carry most of that.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Education levels, noise, and the cost of living against local pay hold the score down. The detail is below, and the map is where it turns into a choice of neighborhood rather than just a place.
Where Garden Grove ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 285 pleasant days a year, better than 96% of cities
- Big-city accessBetter than 94% of cities
- Crime safetyBetter than 92% of cities
- Cell coverageBetter than 90% of cities
- Low vacancyBetter than 89% of cities
Where Garden Grove ranks low
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 7% of cities
- QuietBetter than only 7% of cities
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 7% of cities
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 10% of cities
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 11% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Garden Grove
A household needs to earn about $197,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Garden Grove home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $97,897, 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 Garden Grove's effective rate of 0.69%, 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 Garden Grove
Garden Grove'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 Garden Grove.
Who works in Garden Grove, and how
Work in Garden Grove centers on manufacturing 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 85%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Garden Grove
Garden Grove has more restaurants and bars per resident than 79% of cities and more parkland per resident than 75% of cities. The coast is about 11 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Garden Grove and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Garden Grove, month by month
Garden Grove sees roughly 285 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 69, with lows near 43. Every month averages in that range.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 69° | 55° | 43° |
| April | 74° | 61° | 51° |
| July | 83° | 72° | 63° |
| October | 82° | 67° | 55° |
Flying in and out of Garden Grove
John Wayne/Orange County sits about 8 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 Garden Grove
Schools across Garden Grove average a C+, better than 42% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Ernest O. Lawrence ElementaryF · 10% proficient
- Parkview ElementaryF · 10% proficient
Top middle schools
- Dale Junior HighD+ · 26% proficient
- Hilton D. Bell IntermediateD+ · 25% proficient
- Warner MiddleD+ · 25% proficient
Top high schools
- Oxford AcademyA+ · 93% proficient
- La Quinta HighA · 75% proficient
- Pacifica HighA− · 63% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Garden Grove school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Garden Grove 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 Garden Grove against the other 444 cities.
Who Garden Grove suits
Families
Schools land around the 42nd percentile and crime safety beats 92%.
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 11% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Garden Grove
Is Garden Grove a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Garden Grove ranks 195th of 445 cities. It scores highest on the weather, big-city access, and low crime, and lowest on education levels and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Garden Grove expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $764,941. The overall cost of living runs about 40% above the national average. Set against a $97,897 median income, cost of living beats 7% of cities.
Is Garden Grove safe?
Yes, Garden Grove is safer than 92% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $241 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Garden Grove?
July highs average about 83 degrees, and January highs near 69 with lows near 43. That works out to about 285 pleasant days a year, more than 96% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Garden Grove?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Southwest, Downtown Garden Grove, and Riverview West. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Garden Grove good for families?
Schools beat 42% of cities, crime safety beats 92%, and childcare runs $1,494 a month.
Is Garden Grove good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 7% of cities, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 63% of cities. About 11% of workers already work from home.
Compare Garden Grove with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Garden Grove. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Garden Grove 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.
Garden Grove detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Garden Grove: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Garden Grove: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Garden Grove: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Garden Grove: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Garden Grove 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.