Best PlacesKernville, OR Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Kernville, 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.
Kernville ranks 38,178th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on civic engagement by a wide margin, and biking ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Kernville
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.
Kernville's strengths and weaknesses
Where Kernville ranks high
- Voter turnoutBetter than 98% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 97% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 95% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 114 pleasant days a year, better than 77% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 77% of towns
Where Kernville ranks low
- BikingBetter than only 3% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 5% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 5% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 6% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 11% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Kernville
A household needs to earn about $104,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Kernville home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $60,938, 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 Kernville's effective rate of 0.79%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Kernville
Kernville 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 Kernville.
Who works in Kernville, and how
Work in Kernville centers on construction and health care & social. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 85%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 0%
Life in Kernville
The coast is about 8 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Kernville, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Kernville, month by month
Kernville sees roughly 114 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 63 degrees. January highs sit near 51, with lows near 41. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 51° | 45° | 41° |
| April | 55° | 48° | 42° |
| July | 63° | 57° | 50° |
| October | 60° | 53° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Kernville
The nearest airport, McNary Field, is about 48 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Portland International, about 84 miles away.
Kernville 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 Kernville against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Kernville
Is Kernville a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Kernville ranks 38,178th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on civic engagement, state infrastructure, and health care access, and lowest on biking and an overheated housing market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Kernville expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $397,900. The overall cost of living runs about 2% below the national average. Set against a $60,938 median income, cost of living beats 20% of towns.
Is Kernville safe?
Yes, Kernville is safer than 70% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $305 per resident a year.
Compare Kernville with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Kernville. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Kernville 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.
Kernville detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Kernville: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Kernville: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Kernville: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Kernville: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Kernville 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.