Best PlacesLa Crescenta-Montrose, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around La Crescenta-Montrose, 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.
La Crescenta-Montrose ranks 3,614th 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 La Crescenta-Montrose
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.
La Crescenta-Montrose's strengths and weaknesses
Where La Crescenta-Montrose ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 228 pleasant days a year, better than 99% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 99% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 99% of towns
- TransitBetter than 98% of towns
- BikingBetter than 97% of towns
Where La Crescenta-Montrose ranks low
- Air qualityBetter than only 1% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 5% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 8% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 12% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in La Crescenta-Montrose
A household needs to earn about $317,000 a year to comfortably buy the median La Crescenta-Montrose home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $138,807, 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 La Crescenta-Montrose's effective rate of 0.68%, 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 La Crescenta-Montrose
La Crescenta-Montrose runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for La Crescenta-Montrose.
Who works in La Crescenta-Montrose, and how
Work in La Crescenta-Montrose centers on health care & social and professional & technical. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 73%
- Work from home 24%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in La Crescenta-Montrose
The coast is about 25 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across La Crescenta-Montrose, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in La Crescenta-Montrose, month by month
La Crescenta-Montrose sees roughly 228 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 69, with lows near 44. The comfortable stretch runs September through July.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 69° | 56° | 44° |
| April | 77° | 63° | 53° |
| July | 90° | 75° | 65° |
| October | 84° | 69° | 57° |
Flying in and out of La Crescenta-Montrose
Bob Hope sits about 7 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 3.1 million passengers in 2025, with 54 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around La Crescenta-Montrose
Schools across La Crescenta-Montrose average a B+, better than 79% of towns.
Top high schools
- Crescenta Valley HighA · 77% proficient
- Pasadena HighB+ · 54% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every La Crescenta-Montrose school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
La Crescenta-Montrose 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 La Crescenta-Montrose against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in La Crescenta-Montrose
Is La Crescenta-Montrose a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, La Crescenta-Montrose ranks 3,614th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on the weather, big-city access, and population health, and lowest on air quality and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is La Crescenta-Montrose expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,230,763. The overall cost of living runs about 54% above the national average. Set against a $138,807 median income, cost of living beats 64% of towns.
Is La Crescenta-Montrose safe?
La Crescenta-Montrose is safer than 39% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $358 per resident a year.
Compare La Crescenta-Montrose with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to La Crescenta-Montrose. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in La Crescenta-Montrose 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.
La Crescenta-Montrose detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for La Crescenta-Montrose: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in La Crescenta-Montrose: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of La Crescenta-Montrose: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in La Crescenta-Montrose: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
La Crescenta-Montrose 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.