Best PlacesHalf Moon Bay, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Half Moon Bay, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Half Moon Bay ranks 2,062nd 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 Half Moon Bay
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.
Half Moon Bay's strengths and weaknesses
Where Half Moon Bay ranks high
- BikingBetter than 99% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 185 pleasant days a year, better than 98% of towns
- Household income$165,275 median, better than 98% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 97% of towns
- TransitBetter than 96% of towns
Where Half Moon Bay ranks low
- Cheap childcare$2,233 a month, better than only 1% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 9% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 17% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Half Moon Bay
A household needs to earn about $396,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Half Moon Bay home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $165,275, 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 Half Moon Bay'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 Half Moon Bay
Half Moon Bay runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Half Moon Bay.
Who works in Half Moon Bay, and how
Work in Half Moon Bay centers on professional & technical and education. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 66%
- Work from home 25%
- Transit, walk, or bike 9%
Life in Half Moon Bay
Half Moon Bay has more restaurants and bars per resident than 91% of towns and more parkland per resident than 84% of towns. The coast is about 1 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Half Moon Bay and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Half Moon Bay, month by month
Half Moon Bay sees roughly 185 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 62 degrees. January highs sit near 59, with lows near 45. The comfortable stretch runs June through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 59° | 52° | 45° |
| April | 59° | 53° | 47° |
| July | 62° | 57° | 54° |
| October | 67° | 57° | 49° |
Flying in and out of Half Moon Bay
San Francisco International sits about 11 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 26.5 million passengers in 2025, with 193 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Half Moon Bay
Schools across Half Moon Bay average an A−, better than 78% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Fox ElementaryA+ · 79% proficient
Top middle schools
- Ralston IntermediateA+ · 77% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Half Moon Bay school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Half Moon Bay 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 Half Moon Bay against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Half Moon Bay
Is Half Moon Bay a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Half Moon Bay ranks 2,062nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on biking, the weather, and high incomes, 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 Half Moon Bay expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,540,081. The overall cost of living runs about 50% above the national average. Set against a $165,275 median income, cost of living beats 88% of towns.
Is Half Moon Bay safe?
Half Moon Bay is safer than 26% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $430 per resident a year.
Compare Half Moon Bay with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Half Moon Bay. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Half Moon Bay 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.
Half Moon Bay detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Half Moon Bay: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Half Moon Bay: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Half Moon Bay: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Half Moon Bay: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Half Moon Bay 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.