Best PlacesHollister, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Hollister, 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.
Hollister ranks 1,429th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cell coverage by a wide margin, and long commutes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Hollister
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.
Hollister's strengths and weaknesses
Where Hollister ranks high
- Cell coverageBetter than 96% of cities
- Air qualityBetter than 94% of cities
- Low vacancyBetter than 91% of cities
- Nice weatherabout 184 pleasant days a year, better than 90% of cities
- QuietBetter than 80% of cities
Where Hollister ranks low
- Short commute37.7 minutes each way, better than only 2% of cities
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 3% of cities
- Tree shadeBetter than only 6% of cities
- Internet speedBetter than only 7% of cities
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 10% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Hollister
A household needs to earn about $202,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Hollister home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $120,355, 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 Hollister's effective rate of 0.81%, 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 Hollister
Hollister 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 Hollister.
Who works in Hollister, and how
Work in Hollister centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 85%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Hollister
Hollister has more parkland per resident than 81% of cities. The coast is about 33 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Hollister and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Hollister, month by month
Hollister sees roughly 184 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 62, with lows near 40. The comfortable stretch runs April through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 62° | 49° | 40° |
| April | 71° | 56° | 45° |
| July | 83° | 66° | 54° |
| October | 80° | 61° | 48° |
Flying in and out of Hollister
The nearest airport, Monterey Regional, is about 31 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Norman Y Mineta San Jose International, about 46 miles away.
The best schools in and around Hollister
Schools across Hollister average a C+, better than 41% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Cienega ElementaryC · 35% proficient
- Tres Pinos ElementaryD · 19% proficient
- San JuanD · 18% proficient
Top high schools
- Anzar HighC · 32% proficient
- San Andreas Continuation HighF · 10% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Hollister school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Hollister 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 Hollister against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Hollister suits
Common questions about living in Hollister
Is Hollister a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Hollister ranks 1,429th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on cell coverage, clean air, and few empty homes, and lowest on long commutes and disaster risk. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Hollister expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $771,496. The overall cost of living runs about 27% above the national average. Set against a $120,355 median income, cost of living beats 46% of cities.
Is Hollister safe?
Hollister is safer than 37% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $391 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Hollister?
July highs average about 83 degrees, and January highs near 62 with lows near 40. That works out to about 184 pleasant days a year, more than 90% of cities.
Is Hollister good for families?
Schools beat 41% of cities, crime safety beats 37%, and childcare runs $1,400 a month.
Compare Hollister with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Hollister. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Hollister 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.
Hollister detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Hollister: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Hollister: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Hollister: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Hollister: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Hollister 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.