Best PlacesLong Beach, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Long Beach, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Distance to the water drives a lot of the difference between one part and the next. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Long Beach ranks 144th of 445 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 5 minutes away. Its strengths are the weather and big-city access. The cost shows up in the cost of living against local pay, air quality, and tree cover.
The best neighborhoods in Long Beach
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 Long Beach
The parts of Long Beach, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the city.
Naples-Marina Area, Belmont Shore & State College Area
More adults hold degrees, health care is easier to reach, and local pay stretches further.
The Plaza, Lakewood Village & City College Area
Incomes run higher, though streets are more car-dependent.
Los Altos
More residents vote, though homes cost more.
East Side, Downtown Long Beach & Belmont Heights
Fewer households have young kids and more homes sit empty.
North Long Beach
Scores close to East Side, Downtown Long Beach & Belmont Heights, except that prices have run up less here.
Poly High District & Circle Area
It is quieter.
Wrigley & West Side
North West Long Beach & Los Cerritos
Long Beach shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 12% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Long Beach's strengths and weaknesses
Long Beach lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. The weather is the standout, in the top 2% of cities. Big-city access and biking follow.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. The cost of living against local pay, air quality, and tree cover hold the score down. Cost swings more from one part of Long Beach to another than it does between Long Beach and its neighbors, which the map below shows.
Where Long Beach ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 303 pleasant days a year, better than 98% of cities
- Big-city accessBetter than 96% of cities
- BikingBetter than 96% of cities
- TransitBetter than 96% of cities
- WalkabilityBetter than 93% of cities
Where Long Beach ranks low
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 8% of cities
- Air qualityBetter than only 8% of cities
- Tree shadeBetter than only 13% of cities
- QuietBetter than only 14% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 15% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Long Beach
A household needs to earn about $195,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Long Beach home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $94,458, 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 Long Beach's effective rate of 0.70%, 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 Long Beach
Long Beach runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Long Beach.
Who works in Long Beach, and how
Work in Long Beach centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 75%
- Work from home 16%
- Transit, walk, or bike 10%
Life in Long Beach
Long Beach has more restaurants and bars per resident than 75% of cities and more parkland per resident than 83% of cities. The coast is about 5 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Long Beach and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Long Beach, month by month
Long Beach sees roughly 303 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 70, with lows near 47. Every month averages in that range.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 70° | 57° | 47° |
| April | 75° | 63° | 54° |
| July | 84° | 72° | 65° |
| October | 83° | 69° | 60° |
Flying in and out of Long Beach
The nearest airport, Long Beach (Daugherty Field), is about 1 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Los Angeles International, about 17 miles away.
The best schools in and around Long Beach
Schools across Long Beach average a B+, better than 91% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Newcomb AcademyA+ · 76% proficient
- Naples ElementaryA+ · 75% proficient
- Carver ElementaryA · 69% proficient
Top middle schools
- Rogers MiddleA · 62% proficient
- Intellectual Virtues Academy Of Long BeachA · 62% proficient
- Helen Keller MiddleA · 60% proficient
Top high schools
- Dr. Richard A. Vladovic Harbor Teacher Preparation AcademyA+ · 86% proficient
- Eunice Sato Academy Of Math & ScienceA+ · 83% proficient
- Millikan HighA− · 65% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Long Beach school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Long Beach 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 Long Beach against the other 444 cities.
Who Long Beach suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 16% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Long Beach
Is Long Beach a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Long Beach ranks 144th of 445 cities. It scores highest on the weather, big-city access, and biking, and lowest on the cost of living against local pay and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Long Beach expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $755,108. The overall cost of living runs about 40% above the national average. Set against a $94,458 median income, cost of living beats 8% of cities.
Is Long Beach safe?
Long Beach is safer than 21% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $516 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Long Beach?
July highs average about 84 degrees, and January highs near 70 with lows near 47. That works out to about 303 pleasant days a year, more than 98% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Long Beach?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Naples-Marina Area, Belmont Shore & State College Area, The Plaza, Lakewood Village & City College Area, and Los Altos. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Long Beach good for families?
Schools beat 91% of cities, crime safety beats 21%, and childcare runs $1,130 a month.
Is Long Beach good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 8% of cities, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 86% of cities. About 16% of workers already work from home.
Compare Long Beach with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Long Beach. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Long Beach 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.
Long Beach detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Long Beach: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Long Beach: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Long Beach: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Long Beach: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Long Beach 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.