Best PlacesGorda, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Gorda, 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.
Gorda ranks 38,375th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on quiet by a wide margin, and cell coverage ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Gorda
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.
Gorda's strengths and weaknesses
Where Gorda ranks high
- QuietBetter than 97% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 154 pleasant days a year, better than 93% of towns
- Household income$103,750 median, better than 87% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 86% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 78% of towns
Where Gorda ranks low
- Cell coverageBetter than only 1% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 1% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 3% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 4% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,371 a month, better than only 7% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Gorda
A household needs to earn about $121,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Gorda home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $103,750, 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 Gorda's effective rate of 0.72%, 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 Gorda
Gorda runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Gorda.
Who works in Gorda, and how
Work in Gorda centers on agriculture & forestry and hospitality & food. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 30%
- Work from home 35%
- Transit, walk, or bike 35%
Life in Gorda
The coast is about 4 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Gorda, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Gorda, month by month
Gorda sees roughly 154 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 97 degrees. January highs sit near 63, with lows near 36. The comfortable stretch runs April through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 63° | 48° | 36° |
| April | 77° | 57° | 41° |
| July | 97° | 73° | 54° |
| October | 85° | 62° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Gorda
The nearest airport, Monterey Regional, is about 54 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Norman Y Mineta San Jose International, about 106 miles away.
The best schools in and around Gorda
Schools across Gorda average a C, better than 36% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Cambria GrammarD · 20% proficient
Top middle schools
- Santa Lucia MiddleC− · 28% proficient
Top high schools
- Santa Cruz HighA · 75% proficient
- King City HighC · 30% proficient
- Coast Union HighC− · 30% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Gorda school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Gorda 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 Gorda against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Gorda
Is Gorda a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Gorda ranks 38,375th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on quiet, the weather, and high incomes, and lowest on cell coverage and civic engagement. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Gorda expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $468,300. The overall cost of living runs about 47% above the national average. Set against a $103,750 median income, cost of living beats 23% of towns.
Is Gorda safe?
Gorda is safer than 11% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $583 per resident a year.
Compare Gorda with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Gorda. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Gorda 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.
Gorda detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Gorda: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Gorda: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Gorda: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Gorda: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Gorda 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.