Best PlacesHuntington Beach, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Huntington Beach, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Distance to the water drives a lot of the difference between one part and the next. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Huntington Beach ranks 53rd of 445 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 3 minutes away. Its strengths are the weather and biking. The cost shows up in an overheated housing market, air quality, and childcare costs.
The best neighborhoods in Huntington 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.
The best areas in Huntington Beach
The parts of Huntington Beach, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the city.
Downtown Huntington Beach
More adults hold degrees and schools score higher.
Adams
More households have young kids, though streets are more car-dependent.
Garfield & Yorktown
It is quieter, though incomes run lower.
Bolsa Chica-Heil
Prices have run up less.
Oak View, Washington & Goldenwest
Local pay stretches less far and health care is harder to reach.
Newland
More homes sit empty and fewer residents vote.
Scores across Huntington Beach run from about the 22nd to the 99th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Huntington Beach's strengths and weaknesses
Huntington Beach ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. The weather is the standout, in the top 3% of cities. Biking and big-city access follow.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. An overheated housing market, air quality, and childcare costs hold the score down. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Huntington Beach ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 296 pleasant days a year, better than 97% of cities
- BikingBetter than 94% of cities
- Big-city accessBetter than 94% of cities
- Household income$132,957 median, better than 93% of cities
- Healthcare accessBetter than 89% of cities
Where Huntington Beach ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 10% of cities
- Air qualityBetter than only 12% of cities
- Cheap childcare$1,494 a month, better than only 15% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 15% of cities
- Tree shadeBetter than only 18% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Huntington Beach
A household needs to earn about $280,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Huntington Beach home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $132,957, 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 Huntington Beach's effective rate of 0.59%, 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 Huntington Beach
Huntington Beach runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Huntington Beach.
Who works in Huntington Beach, and how
Work in Huntington Beach centers on health care & social and professional & technical. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 73%
- Work from home 22%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Huntington Beach
Huntington Beach has more restaurants and bars per resident than 80% of cities and more parkland per resident than 83% of cities. The coast is about 3 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Huntington Beach and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Huntington Beach, month by month
Huntington Beach sees roughly 296 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 69, with lows near 43. Every month averages in that range.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 69° | 55° | 43° |
| April | 74° | 61° | 51° |
| July | 83° | 72° | 63° |
| October | 82° | 67° | 55° |
Flying in and out of Huntington Beach
John Wayne/Orange County sits about 8 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 5.5 million passengers in 2025, with 80 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Huntington Beach
Schools across Huntington Beach average a B−, better than 69% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Ralph E. Hawes ElementaryD+ · 25% proficient
- Huntington Seacliff ElementaryD+ · 25% proficient
- Village View ElementaryD+ · 25% proficient
Top middle schools
- Helen Keller MiddleA · 60% proficient
- Fulton (harry C.) MiddleD+ · 25% proficient
- Helen Stacey MiddleD+ · 25% proficient
Top high schools
- Fountain Valley HighA+ · 87% proficient
- Eunice Sato Academy Of Math & ScienceA+ · 83% proficient
- Huntington Beach HighA · 80% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Huntington Beach school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Huntington 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 Huntington Beach against the other 444 cities.
Who Huntington Beach suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 22% already work from home.
Retirees
The weather beats 97% of cities, health care access beats 89%, and it is quieter than 60%.
Common questions about living in Huntington Beach
Is Huntington Beach a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Huntington Beach ranks 53rd of 445 cities. It scores highest on the weather, biking, and big-city access, and lowest on an overheated housing market and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Huntington Beach expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,103,965. The overall cost of living runs about 56% above the national average. Set against a $132,957 median income, cost of living beats 40% of cities.
Is Huntington Beach safe?
Yes, Huntington Beach is safer than 64% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $348 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Huntington Beach?
July highs average about 83 degrees, and January highs near 69 with lows near 43. That works out to about 296 pleasant days a year, more than 97% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Huntington Beach?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Downtown Huntington Beach, Adams, and Garfield & Yorktown. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Huntington Beach good for families?
Schools beat 69% of cities, crime safety beats 64%, and childcare runs $1,494 a month.
Is Huntington Beach good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 40% of cities, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 87% of cities. About 22% of workers already work from home.
Compare Huntington Beach with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Huntington Beach. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Huntington 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.
Huntington Beach detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Huntington Beach: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Huntington Beach: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Huntington Beach: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Huntington Beach: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Huntington 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.