Best PlacesLake Almanor, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Lake Almanor, 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.
Lake Almanor ranks 30,017th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on quiet by a wide margin, and crime is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Lake Almanor
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.
Lake Almanor's strengths and weaknesses
Where Lake Almanor ranks high
- QuietBetter than 97% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 96% of towns
- Household income$98,281 median, better than 84% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 122 pleasant days a year, better than 81% of towns
- BikingBetter than 81% of towns
Where Lake Almanor ranks low
- Crime safetyBetter than only 7% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of towns
- School gradeD, better than only 9% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 9% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Lake Almanor
A household needs to earn about $118,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Lake Almanor home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $98,281, 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 Lake Almanor's effective rate of 0.66%, 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 Lake Almanor
Lake Almanor runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Lake Almanor.
Who works in Lake Almanor, and how
Work in Lake Almanor centers on admin & support services and professional & technical. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 73%
- Work from home 22%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Lake Almanor
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Lake Almanor.
What the weather is like in Lake Almanor, month by month
Lake Almanor sees roughly 122 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 93 degrees. January highs sit near 46, with lows near 27. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 46° | 35° | 27° |
| April | 65° | 50° | 36° |
| July | 93° | 75° | 54° |
| October | 68° | 48° | 34° |
Flying in and out of Lake Almanor
The nearest airport, Redding Regional, is about 64 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Sacramento International, about 112 miles away.
The best schools in and around Lake Almanor
Schools across Lake Almanor average a D, better than 9% of towns.
Top high schools
- Greenville Junior/senior HighD− · 16% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Lake Almanor school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Lake Almanor 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 Lake Almanor against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Lake Almanor
Is Lake Almanor a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Lake Almanor ranks 30,017th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on quiet, health care access, and high incomes, and lowest on crime and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Lake Almanor expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $460,600. The overall cost of living runs about 7% above the national average. Set against a $98,281 median income, cost of living beats 69% of towns.
Is Lake Almanor safe?
Lake Almanor is safer than 7% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $661 per resident a year.
Compare Lake Almanor with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Lake Almanor. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Lake Almanor 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.
Lake Almanor detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Lake Almanor: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Lake Almanor: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Lake Almanor: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Lake Almanor: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Lake Almanor 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.