Best PlacesLafayette, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Lafayette, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages hide a wide spread here, so the area matters as much as the address. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Lafayette ranks 172nd of 2,098 U.S. cities 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 Lafayette
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.
The best areas in Lafayette
The parts of Lafayette, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first.
Burton Valley Area
Reliez Valley Area
Downtown Lafayette, Via Roble Area & Upper Happy Valley Area
Peardale Estates
Scores across Lafayette run from about the 64th to the 99th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Lafayette's strengths and weaknesses
Where Lafayette ranks high
- Educational attainmentBetter than 99% of cities
- Household income$210,949 median, better than 99% of cities
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 94% of cities
- School gradeA, better than 94% of cities
- Healthcare accessBetter than 94% of cities
Where Lafayette ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,942 a month, better than only 3% of cities
- Cell coverageBetter than only 4% of cities
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 14% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 14% of cities
- State infrastructureBetter than only 24% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Lafayette
A household needs to earn about $451,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Lafayette home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $210,949, 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 Lafayette's effective rate of 0.67%, 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 Lafayette
Lafayette runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Lafayette.
Who works in Lafayette, and how
Work in Lafayette centers on professional & technical and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 45%
- Work from home 41%
- Transit, walk, or bike 14%
Life in Lafayette
Lafayette has more restaurants and bars per resident than 78% of cities and more parkland per resident than 83% of cities. The coast is about 25 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Lafayette and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Lafayette, month by month
Lafayette sees roughly 174 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 61, with lows near 41. The comfortable stretch runs March through November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 61° | 51° | 41° |
| April | 75° | 60° | 48° |
| July | 92° | 72° | 58° |
| October | 82° | 65° | 52° |
Flying in and out of Lafayette
San Francisco Bay Oakland International sits about 14 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 4.5 million passengers in 2025, with 64 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Lafayette
Schools across Lafayette average an A, better than 94% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Lafayette ElementaryA+ · 75% proficient
- Burton Valley ElementaryA+ · 75% proficient
- Happy Valley ElementaryA+ · 75% proficient
Top middle schools
- M. H. Stanley MiddleA+ · 71% proficient
- Pleasant Hill MiddleB+ · 48% proficient
- Valley View MiddleB− · 42% proficient
Top high schools
- Campolindo HighA+ · 84% proficient
- Acalanes HighA · 78% proficient
- Las Lomas HighA · 75% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Lafayette school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Lafayette 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 Lafayette against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Lafayette suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 94% of cities and 41% already work from home.
Retirees
The weather beats 87% of cities and health care access beats 94%.
Common questions about living in Lafayette
Is Lafayette a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Lafayette ranks 172nd of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on an educated workforce, high incomes, and what local pay buys, and lowest on childcare costs and cell coverage. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Lafayette expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,758,185. The overall cost of living runs about 49% above the national average. Set against a $210,949 median income, cost of living beats 94% of cities.
Is Lafayette safe?
Lafayette is safer than 27% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $432 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Lafayette?
July highs average about 92 degrees, and January highs near 61 with lows near 41. That works out to about 174 pleasant days a year, more than 87% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Lafayette?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Burton Valley Area, Reliez Valley Area, and Downtown Lafayette, Via Roble Area & Upper Happy Valley Area. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Compare Lafayette with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Lafayette. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Lafayette 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.
Lafayette detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Lafayette: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Lafayette: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Lafayette: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Lafayette: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Lafayette 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.