Best PlacesGrover Beach, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Grover Beach, 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.
Grover Beach ranks 6,870th 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 Grover Beach
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.
Grover Beach's strengths and weaknesses
Where Grover Beach ranks high
- BikingBetter than 99% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 99% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 209 pleasant days a year, better than 99% of towns
- TransitBetter than 97% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 95% of towns
Where Grover Beach ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,391 a month, better than only 6% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 8% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 17% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 18% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Grover Beach
A household needs to earn about $189,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Grover Beach home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $92,210, 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 Grover Beach'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 Grover Beach
Grover Beach's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Grover Beach.
Who works in Grover Beach, and how
Work in Grover Beach centers on construction and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 79%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Grover Beach
Grover Beach has more restaurants and bars per resident than 83% of towns. The coast is about 2 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Grover Beach and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Grover Beach, month by month
Grover Beach sees roughly 209 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 81 degrees. January highs sit near 68, with lows near 42. The comfortable stretch runs March through November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 68° | 54° | 42° |
| April | 72° | 57° | 47° |
| July | 81° | 64° | 54° |
| October | 82° | 63° | 51° |
Flying in and out of Grover Beach
The nearest airport, San Luis Obispo County Regional, is about 8 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Bob Hope, about 143 miles away.
The best schools in and around Grover Beach
Schools across Grover Beach average a C+, better than 48% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Cuyama ElementaryD− · 14% proficient
Top middle schools
- Teach ElementaryA+ · 80% proficient
Top high schools
- San Luis Obispo HighB+ · 52% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Grover Beach school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Grover Beach 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 Grover Beach against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Grover Beach
Is Grover Beach a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Grover Beach ranks 6,870th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on biking, walkability, and the weather, 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 Grover Beach expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $734,891. The overall cost of living runs about 22% above the national average. Set against a $92,210 median income, cost of living beats 37% of towns.
Is Grover Beach safe?
Grover Beach is safer than 50% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $307 per resident a year.
Compare Grover Beach with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Grover Beach. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Grover Beach 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.
Grover Beach detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Grover Beach: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Grover Beach: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Grover Beach: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Grover Beach: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Grover Beach 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.