Best PlacesIdyllwild-Pine Cove, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Idyllwild-Pine Cove, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Idyllwild-Pine Cove ranks 37,447th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on the weather by a wide margin, and air quality ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Idyllwild-Pine Cove
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.
Idyllwild-Pine Cove's strengths and weaknesses
Where Idyllwild-Pine Cove ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 192 pleasant days a year, better than 99% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 96% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 94% of towns
- BikingBetter than 94% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 93% of towns
Where Idyllwild-Pine Cove ranks low
- Air qualityBetter than only 1% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 4% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Idyllwild-Pine Cove
A household needs to earn about $139,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Idyllwild-Pine Cove home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $83,119, 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 Idyllwild-Pine Cove's effective rate of 0.76%, 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 Idyllwild-Pine Cove
Idyllwild-Pine Cove runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Idyllwild-Pine Cove.
Who works in Idyllwild-Pine Cove, and how
Work in Idyllwild-Pine Cove centers on education and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 61%
- Work from home 28%
- Transit, walk, or bike 10%
Life in Idyllwild-Pine Cove
Idyllwild-Pine Cove has more restaurants and bars per resident than 92% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Idyllwild-Pine Cove and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Idyllwild-Pine Cove, month by month
Idyllwild-Pine Cove sees roughly 192 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 112 degrees. January highs sit near 72, with lows near 46. The comfortable stretch runs November through March.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 72° | 59° | 46° |
| April | 91° | 76° | 59° |
| July | 112° | 97° | 81° |
| October | 94° | 79° | 64° |
Flying in and out of Idyllwild-Pine Cove
The nearest airport, Palm Springs International, is about 14 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Ontario International, about 55 miles away.
The best schools in and around Idyllwild-Pine Cove
Schools across Idyllwild-Pine Cove average a C−, better than 25% of towns.
Top high schools
- Hemet HighD+ · 24% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Idyllwild-Pine Cove school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Idyllwild-Pine Cove 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 Idyllwild-Pine Cove against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Idyllwild-Pine Cove
Is Idyllwild-Pine Cove a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Idyllwild-Pine Cove ranks 37,447th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on the weather, fast internet, and big-city access, and lowest on air quality and disaster risk. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Idyllwild-Pine Cove expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $533,983. The overall cost of living runs about 19% above the national average. Set against a $83,119 median income, cost of living beats 34% of towns.
Is Idyllwild-Pine Cove safe?
Idyllwild-Pine Cove is safer than 16% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $554 per resident a year.
Compare Idyllwild-Pine Cove with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Idyllwild-Pine Cove. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Idyllwild-Pine Cove 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.
Idyllwild-Pine Cove detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Idyllwild-Pine Cove: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Idyllwild-Pine Cove: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Idyllwild-Pine Cove: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Idyllwild-Pine Cove: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Idyllwild-Pine Cove 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.