Best PlacesLos Angeles, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Los Angeles metro, 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.
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Los Angeles ranks 178th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 16 minutes away. Its strengths are the weather and big-city access. The cost shows up in noise, air quality, and civic engagement.
The best neighborhoods in the Los Angeles metro
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 Los Angeles
The towns and districts of the Los Angeles metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Torrance, Redondo Beach & San Pedro
More adults hold degrees, heat risk is lower, and incomes run higher.
Anaheim, Irvine & Santa Ana
Crime runs lower, though streets are more car-dependent.
Long Beach
Schools score higher and prices have run up less.
Pomona, West Covina & La Habra
Biking is worse.
Downtown Los Angeles
Local pay stretches less far and more homes sit empty.
Covina, Glendora & Azusa
Scores close to Downtown Los Angeles, except that transit reaches fewer jobs here.
Lancaster, Palmdale & Glendale
North Hollywood, Van Nuys & North Hills
East Los Angeles, Downey & South Gate
Health care is harder to reach and fewer residents vote.
Los Angeles shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 2% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Los Angeles' strengths and weaknesses
Los Angeles lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. The weather is the standout, in the top 1% of metro areas. Big-city access and walkability follow.
The one real hole is noise, near the bottom of the country. Air quality and civic engagement also cost it ground. That varies block to block rather than evenly, and the map below shows where.
Where Los Angeles ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 287 pleasant days a year, better than 99% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than 99% of metro areas
- WalkabilityBetter than 99% of metro areas
- TransitBetter than 99% of metro areas
- BikingBetter than 99% of metro areas
Where Los Angeles ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 5% of metro areas
- Short commute29.5 minutes each way, better than only 5% of metro areas
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 7% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Los Angeles
A household needs to earn about $234,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Los Angeles home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $105,944, 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 Angeles' effective rate of 0.68%, 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 Angeles
Los Angeles's age mix sits close to the national median, 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 Los Angeles.
Who works in Los Angeles, and how
Work in Los Angeles 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 17%
- Transit, walk, or bike 8%
Life in Los Angeles
Los Angeles has less parkland per resident than most metro areas. The coast is about 16 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Los Angeles and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Los Angeles growing, and who is moving in?
Los Angeles has lost about 2% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Riverside, CA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Los Angeles go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Los Angeles, month by month
Los Angeles sees roughly 287 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 70, with lows near 48. Every month averages in that range.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 70° | 58° | 48° |
| April | 76° | 64° | 55° |
| July | 85° | 73° | 65° |
| October | 82° | 69° | 60° |
Flying in and out of Los Angeles
The nearest airport, Jack Northrop Field/Hawthorne Municipal, is about 8 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Los Angeles International, about 9 miles away.
The best schools in and around Los Angeles
Schools across Los Angeles average a C+, better than 52% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Gonsalves (joe A.) ElementaryA+ · 95% proficient
- Leal (frank C.) ElementaryA+ · 91% proficient
- Wittmann (helen) ElementaryA+ · 88% proficient
Top middle schools
- Carmenita MiddleA+ · 98% proficient
- Tetzlaff (martin B.) MiddleA+ · 90% proficient
- Huntington MiddleA+ · 81% proficient
Top high schools
- California Academy Of Mathematics And ScienceA+ · 98% proficient
- Science Academy Stem MagnetA+ · 95% proficient
- Oxford AcademyA+ · 93% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Los Angeles school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Los Angeles 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 Angeles against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Los Angeles suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 17% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Los Angeles
Is Los Angeles a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Los Angeles ranks 178th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on the weather, big-city access, and walkability, and lowest on noise and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Los Angeles expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $909,484. The overall cost of living runs about 43% above the national average. Set against a $105,944 median income, cost of living beats 7% of metro areas.
Is Los Angeles safe?
Los Angeles is safer than 19% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $452 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Los Angeles?
July highs average about 85 degrees, and January highs near 70 with lows near 48. That works out to about 287 pleasant days a year, more than 100% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Los Angeles?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Torrance, Redondo Beach & San Pedro, Anaheim, Irvine & Santa Ana, and Long Beach. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Los Angeles good for families?
Schools beat 52% of metro areas, crime safety beats 19%, and childcare runs $1,218 a month.
Is Los Angeles good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 7% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 73% of metro areas. About 17% of workers already work from home.
Compare Los Angeles with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Los Angeles. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Los Angeles 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 Angeles detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Los Angeles: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Los Angeles: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Los Angeles: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Los Angeles: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Los Angeles 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.