Best PlacesHanford, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Hanford metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Julie Jordan Scott from Bakersfield, California, USA, CC BY 2.0, via commons
Hanford ranks 355th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on education levels and the cost of living against local pay. It does better on cell coverage, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Hanford metro
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 Hanford
The towns and districts of the Hanford metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Downtown Hanford
Local pay stretches further, more adults hold degrees, and more residents vote.
Lemoore & Armona
More households have young kids.
Corcoran
Health care is harder to reach and incomes run lower.
Avenal
It is quieter, though schools score lower.
Scores across Hanford run from about the 2nd to the 86th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Hanford's strengths and weaknesses
Hanford ranks near the bottom because several of the basics fall short at once. Cell coverage, the weather, and big-city access carry most of that.
The weak spots are broad rather than narrow: education levels, the cost of living against local pay, and tree cover all drag on the score. Those are area averages, and the map below shows which parts run well above them.
Where Hanford ranks high
- Cell coverageBetter than 95% of metro areas
- Nice weatherabout 139 pleasant days a year, better than 82% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than 75% of metro areas
- Low vacancyBetter than 74% of metro areas
- TransitBetter than 62% of metro areas
Where Hanford ranks low
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 2% of metro areas
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 2% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than only 2% of metro areas
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 2% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than only 2% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Hanford
A household needs to earn about $82,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Hanford home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $73,174, 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 Hanford's effective rate of 0.74%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Hanford
Hanford runs younger than the country, 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 Hanford.
Who works in Hanford, and how
Work in Hanford centers on agriculture & forestry and health care & social. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 90%
- Work from home 6%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Hanford
Hanford has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas and less parkland per resident than most metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Hanford and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Hanford growing, and who is moving in?
Hanford has grown about 4% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Bakersfield, CA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Hanford go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Hanford, month by month
Hanford sees roughly 139 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 102 degrees. January highs sit near 61, with lows near 38. The comfortable stretch runs March through May and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 61° | 48° | 38° |
| April | 80° | 63° | 47° |
| July | 102° | 85° | 64° |
| October | 84° | 65° | 48° |
Flying in and out of Hanford
The nearest airport, Fresno Yosemite International, is about 31 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Norman Y Mineta San Jose International, about 144 miles away.
The best schools in and around Hanford
Schools across Hanford average a C, better than 24% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Jefferson AcademyA− · 57% proficient
- Mid Valley Alternative CharterB · 50% proficient
- Frontier ElementaryB · 50% proficient
Top middle schools
- Liberty MiddleB− · 40% proficient
- Pioneer MiddleC+ · 38% proficient
- Woodrow Wilson Junior HighC+ · 36% proficient
Top high schools
- Kingsburg HighB− · 44% proficient
- Corcoran HighC+ · 40% proficient
- Lemoore HighC+ · 35% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Hanford school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Hanford 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 Hanford against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Hanford suits
Retirees
The weather beats 82% of metro areas and it is quieter than 55%.
Common questions about living in Hanford
Is Hanford a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Hanford ranks 355th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on cell coverage, the weather, and big-city access, and lowest on education levels and the cost of living against local pay. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Hanford expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $316,438. The overall cost of living runs about 4% above the national average. Set against a $73,174 median income, cost of living beats 2% of metro areas.
Is Hanford safe?
Hanford is safer than 39% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $390 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Hanford?
July highs average about 102 degrees, and January highs near 61 with lows near 38. That works out to about 139 pleasant days a year, more than 82% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Hanford?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Downtown Hanford, Lemoore & Armona, and Corcoran. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Hanford good for families?
Schools beat 24% of metro areas, crime safety beats 39%, and childcare runs $960 a month.
Is Hanford good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 2% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 38% of metro areas. About 6% of workers already work from home.
Compare Hanford with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Hanford. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Hanford 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.
Hanford detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Hanford: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Hanford: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Hanford: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Hanford: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Hanford 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.