Best PlacesLadera Heights, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Ladera Heights, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Ladera Heights ranks 8,271st 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 Ladera Heights
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.
Ladera Heights' strengths and weaknesses
Where Ladera Heights ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 340 pleasant days a year, better than 99% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 99% of towns
- TransitBetter than 99% of towns
- BikingBetter than 98% of towns
- Household income$155,844 median, better than 98% of towns
Where Ladera Heights ranks low
- Air qualityBetter than only 1% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 2% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 4% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 6% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Ladera Heights
A household needs to earn about $369,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Ladera Heights home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $155,844, 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 Ladera Heights' effective rate of 0.56%, 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 Ladera Heights
Ladera Heights runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Ladera Heights.
Who works in Ladera Heights, and how
Work in Ladera Heights centers on professional & technical and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 65%
- Work from home 28%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Ladera Heights
The coast is about 6 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Ladera Heights, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Ladera Heights, month by month
Ladera Heights sees roughly 340 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 76 degrees. January highs sit near 68, with lows near 48. Every month averages in that range.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 68° | 57° | 48° |
| April | 70° | 61° | 54° |
| July | 76° | 69° | 64° |
| October | 78° | 67° | 60° |
Flying in and out of Ladera Heights
Los Angeles International sits about 4 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 36.7 million passengers in 2025, with 247 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Ladera Heights
Schools across Ladera Heights average a D, better than 8% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- El Rincon ElementaryB+ · 52% proficient
- Frank D. Parent Tk-8D− · 14% proficient
Top middle schools
- Culver City MiddleA · 59% proficient
Top high schools
- Culver City HighA− · 59% proficient
- Early College Academy-la Trade Tech CollegeB · 50% proficient
- Inglewood HighD− · 14% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Ladera Heights school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Ladera Heights 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 Ladera Heights against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Ladera Heights
Is Ladera Heights a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Ladera Heights ranks 8,271st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on the weather, big-city access, and transit, 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 Ladera Heights expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,460,597. The overall cost of living runs about 53% above the national average. Set against a $155,844 median income, cost of living beats 80% of towns.
Is Ladera Heights safe?
Ladera Heights is safer than 9% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $623 per resident a year.
Compare Ladera Heights with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Ladera Heights. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Ladera Heights 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.
Ladera Heights detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Ladera Heights: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Ladera Heights: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Ladera Heights: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Ladera Heights: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Ladera Heights 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.