Best PlacesLos Alamitos, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Los Alamitos, 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.
Los Alamitos ranks 8,267th 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 Los Alamitos
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.
Los Alamitos' strengths and weaknesses
Where Los Alamitos ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 267 pleasant days a year, better than 99% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 99% of towns
- BikingBetter than 99% of towns
- TransitBetter than 99% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 99% of towns
Where Los Alamitos ranks low
- Air qualityBetter than only 1% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,487 a month, better than only 4% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 4% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 9% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Los Alamitos
A household needs to earn about $250,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Los Alamitos home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $114,113, 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 Los Alamitos' effective rate of 0.55%, 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 Los Alamitos
Los Alamitos's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Los Alamitos.
Who works in Los Alamitos, and how
Work in Los Alamitos centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 78%
- Work from home 15%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Los Alamitos
Los Alamitos has more restaurants and bars per resident than 91% of towns. The coast is about 7 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Los Alamitos and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Los Alamitos, month by month
Los Alamitos sees roughly 267 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 69, with lows near 43. Every month averages in that range.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 69° | 55° | 43° |
| April | 74° | 61° | 51° |
| July | 83° | 72° | 63° |
| October | 82° | 67° | 55° |
Flying in and out of Los Alamitos
The nearest airport, Long Beach (Daugherty Field), is about 5 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is John Wayne/Orange County, about 14 miles away.
The best schools in and around Los Alamitos
Schools across Los Alamitos average a B−, better than 68% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Newcomb AcademyA+ · 76% proficient
- Tincher PreparatoryA · 63% proficient
- Hawaiian ElementaryB · 50% proficient
Top middle schools
- Helen Keller MiddleA · 60% proficient
- Lexington Junior HighA− · 54% proficient
- Hilton D. Bell IntermediateD+ · 25% proficient
Top high schools
- Oxford AcademyA+ · 93% proficient
- Eunice Sato Academy Of Math & ScienceA+ · 83% proficient
- Los Alamitos HighA · 72% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Los Alamitos school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Los Alamitos 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 Los Alamitos against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Los Alamitos
Is Los Alamitos a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Los Alamitos ranks 8,267th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on the weather, big-city access, and biking, and lowest on air quality and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Los Alamitos expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $991,156. The overall cost of living runs about 53% above the national average. Set against a $114,113 median income, cost of living beats 33% of towns.
Is Los Alamitos safe?
Los Alamitos is safer than 22% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $451 per resident a year.
Compare Los Alamitos with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Los Alamitos. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Los Alamitos 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.
Los Alamitos detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Los Alamitos: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Los Alamitos: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Los Alamitos: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Los Alamitos: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Los Alamitos 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.