Best PlacesGardena, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Gardena, 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.
Gardena ranks 1,412th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on the weather by a wide margin, and air quality ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Gardena
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.
Gardena's strengths and weaknesses
Where Gardena ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 334 pleasant days a year, better than 99% of cities
- Big-city accessBetter than 98% of cities
- TransitBetter than 97% of cities
- WalkabilityBetter than 94% of cities
- BikingBetter than 76% of cities
Where Gardena ranks low
- Air qualityBetter than only 4% of cities
- Tree shadeBetter than only 4% of cities
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 8% of cities
- Crime safetyBetter than only 8% of cities
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 8% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Gardena
A household needs to earn about $178,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Gardena home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $89,090, 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 Gardena'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 Gardena
Gardena'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 Gardena.
Who works in Gardena, and how
Work in Gardena centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 83%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Gardena
Gardena has more restaurants and bars per resident than 86% of cities and more parkland per resident than 76% of cities. The coast is about 8 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Gardena and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Gardena, month by month
Gardena sees roughly 334 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 79 degrees. January highs sit near 69, with lows near 49. Every month averages in that range.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 69° | 58° | 49° |
| April | 72° | 62° | 55° |
| July | 79° | 71° | 65° |
| October | 80° | 68° | 61° |
Flying in and out of Gardena
The nearest airport, Jack Northrop Field/Hawthorne Municipal, is about 3 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Los Angeles International, about 7 miles away.
The best schools in and around Gardena
Schools across Gardena average a C−, better than 26% of cities.
Top high schools
- California Academy Of Mathematics And ScienceA+ · 98% proficient
- Early College Academy-la Trade Tech CollegeB · 50% proficient
- Gardena Senior HighC · 31% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Gardena school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Gardena 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 Gardena against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Gardena suits
Common questions about living in Gardena
Is Gardena a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Gardena ranks 1,412th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on the weather, big-city access, and transit, and lowest on air quality and tree cover. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Gardena expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $690,283. The overall cost of living runs about 31% above the national average. Set against a $89,090 median income, cost of living beats 8% of cities.
Is Gardena safe?
Gardena is safer than 8% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $536 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Gardena?
July highs average about 79 degrees, and January highs near 69 with lows near 49. That works out to about 334 pleasant days a year, more than 100% of cities.
Is Gardena good for families?
Schools beat 26% of cities, crime safety beats 8%, and childcare runs $1,130 a month.
Compare Gardena with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Gardena. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Gardena 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.
Gardena detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Gardena: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Gardena: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Gardena: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Gardena: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Gardena 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.