Best PlacesLa Riviera, CA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around La Riviera, 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.

See the map of best neighborhoods

La Riviera ranks 14,192nd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on biking by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.

#14,192
of 50,333 towns
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 50,333 towns
Your rank
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The best neighborhoods in La Riviera

Map of the best neighborhoods in the La Riviera area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

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 Riviera's strengths and weaknesses

Top 1%Biking
Top 1%Transit
Top 10%Walkability
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare La Riviera with other towns.

Where La Riviera ranks high

  • BikingBetter than 99% of towns
  • TransitBetter than 99% of towns
  • WalkabilityBetter than 94% of towns
  • Health outlookBetter than 94% of towns
  • Big-city accessBetter than 94% of towns

Where La Riviera ranks low

  • QuietBetter than only 1% of towns
  • Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of towns
  • Cheap childcare$1,332 a month, better than only 8% of towns
  • Crime safetyBetter than only 8% of towns
  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 11% of towns

What it costs to buy a home in La Riviera

A household needs to earn about $123,000 a year to comfortably buy the median La Riviera home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $103,766, so buying stretches a typical household.

Income to buy the median home
$123,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$2,879
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $478,093 home
Median rent
$1,878
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$2,438
Property tax$282
Homeowners insurance$159

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 Riviera's effective rate of 0.71%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.

Renting versus buying

At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in La Riviera

La Riviera runs younger than the country.

Median age
35
younger than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
13%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.6
near the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1820%
18 to 3429%
35 to 4921%
50 to 6417%
65 and older13%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for La Riviera.


Who works in La Riviera, and how

Work in La Riviera centers on health care & social and public administration. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.

Work from home
24%
above the national average
Unemployment
4.5%
about the national average
Job growth
−1.4%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social15%
Public administration14%
Retail trade10%
Education9%
Professional & technical8%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 71%
  • Work from home 24%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 5%

Life in La Riviera

La Riviera has more restaurants and bars per resident than 72% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of La Riviera and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
46
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 40.9 per 10,000 residents, more than 72% of towns

What the weather is like in La Riviera, month by month

La Riviera sees roughly 147 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 96 degrees. January highs sit near 58, with lows near 40. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January58°48°40°
April74°60°47°
July96°77°60°
October80°64°50°

Flying in and out of La Riviera

Sacramento International sits about 15 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 6.8 million passengers in 2025, with 85 nonstop destinations.

Nearest airport
SMF
Sacramento International, about 15 miles
Airport size
Medium hub
36th-busiest in the US, 85 nonstop destinations
Average drive
22 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around La Riviera

Schools across La Riviera average a C+, better than 52% of towns.

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every La Riviera school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


La Riviera 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 Riviera against the other 50,332 towns.


Common questions about living in La Riviera

Is La Riviera a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, La Riviera ranks 14,192nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on biking, transit, and walkability, and lowest on noise and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is La Riviera expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $478,093. The overall cost of living runs about 11% above the national average. Set against a $103,766 median income, cost of living beats 67% of towns.

Is La Riviera safe?

La Riviera is safer than 8% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $631 per resident a year.


Compare La Riviera with other towns


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to La Riviera. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in La Riviera 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 Riviera detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for La Riviera: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in La Riviera: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of La Riviera: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in La Riviera: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

La Riviera detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.