Best PlacesInverness, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Inverness, 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.
Inverness ranks 36,799th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on an educated workforce by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Inverness
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.
Inverness' strengths and weaknesses
Where Inverness ranks high
- Educational attainmentBetter than 99% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 98% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 97% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 97% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 94% of towns
Where Inverness ranks low
- Cheap childcare$2,211 a month, better than only 1% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 5% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 6% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 6% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 6% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Inverness
A household needs to earn about $451,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Inverness home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $66,504, 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 Inverness' effective rate of 0.53%, 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 Inverness
Inverness 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 Inverness.
Who works in Inverness, and how
Work in Inverness centers on real estate and construction. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 66%
- Work from home 29%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Inverness
The coast is about 15 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Inverness, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Inverness, month by month
Inverness sees roughly 152 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 60, with lows near 42. The comfortable stretch runs April through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 60° | 50° | 42° |
| April | 71° | 57° | 46° |
| July | 87° | 66° | 52° |
| October | 79° | 61° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Inverness
The nearest airport, Charles M Schulz/Sonoma County, is about 28 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is San Francisco International, about 43 miles away.
The best schools in and around Inverness
Schools across Inverness average a C, better than 33% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Bolinas-stinson ElementaryB · 50% proficient
Top middle schools
- West Marin ElementaryC− · 30% proficient
Top high schools
- Tomales HighD+ · 25% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Inverness school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Inverness 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 Inverness against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Inverness
Is Inverness a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Inverness ranks 36,799th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on an educated workforce, a strong job market, and health care access, and lowest on childcare costs and internet speeds. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Inverness expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,791,406. The overall cost of living runs about 62% above the national average. Set against a $66,504 median income, cost of living beats 6% of towns.
Is Inverness safe?
Inverness is safer than 6% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $696 per resident a year.
Compare Inverness with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Inverness. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Inverness 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.
Inverness detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Inverness: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Inverness: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Inverness: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Inverness: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Inverness 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.