Best PlacesLemon Grove, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Lemon Grove, 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.
Lemon Grove ranks 1,417th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on the weather by a wide margin, and crime is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Lemon Grove
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.
Lemon Grove's strengths and weaknesses
Where Lemon Grove ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 252 pleasant days a year, better than 95% of cities
- TransitBetter than 92% of cities
- Low vacancyBetter than 82% of cities
- Internet speedBetter than 77% of cities
- BikingBetter than 74% of cities
Where Lemon Grove ranks low
- Crime safetyBetter than only 9% of cities
- Tree shadeBetter than only 10% of cities
- QuietBetter than only 13% of cities
- Air qualityBetter than only 14% of cities
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 14% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Lemon Grove
A household needs to earn about $187,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Lemon Grove home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $94,344, 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 Lemon Grove's effective rate of 0.98%, 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 Lemon Grove
Lemon Grove runs younger than the country, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Lemon Grove.
Who works in Lemon Grove, and how
Work in Lemon Grove centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 83%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Lemon Grove
Lemon Grove has more restaurants and bars per resident than 70% of cities. The coast is about 12 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Lemon Grove and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Lemon Grove, month by month
Lemon Grove sees roughly 252 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 68, with lows near 43. The comfortable stretch runs February through November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 68° | 54° | 43° |
| April | 74° | 61° | 52° |
| July | 87° | 74° | 65° |
| October | 82° | 67° | 56° |
Flying in and out of Lemon Grove
San Diego International sits about 9 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 12.7 million passengers in 2025, with 121 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Lemon Grove
Schools across Lemon Grove average a D+, better than 15% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Audubon K-8D+ · 25% proficient
Top high schools
- Mount Miguel HighC · 32% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Lemon Grove school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Lemon Grove 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 Lemon Grove against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Lemon Grove suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 12% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Lemon Grove
Is Lemon Grove a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Lemon Grove ranks 1,417th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on the weather, transit, and few empty homes, and lowest on crime and tree cover. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Lemon Grove expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $697,942. The overall cost of living runs about 24% above the national average. Set against a $94,344 median income, cost of living beats 17% of cities.
Is Lemon Grove safe?
Lemon Grove is safer than 9% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $563 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Lemon Grove?
July highs average about 87 degrees, and January highs near 68 with lows near 43. That works out to about 252 pleasant days a year, more than 95% of cities.
Is Lemon Grove good for families?
Schools beat 15% of cities, crime safety beats 9%, and childcare runs $1,432 a month.
Compare Lemon Grove with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Lemon Grove. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Lemon Grove 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.
Lemon Grove detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Lemon Grove: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Lemon Grove: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Lemon Grove: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Lemon Grove: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Lemon Grove 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.