Best PlacesLos Olivos, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Los Olivos, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Los Olivos ranks 3,974th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on high incomes by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Los Olivos
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 Olivos' strengths and weaknesses
Where Los Olivos ranks high
- Household income$165,455 median, better than 98% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 177 pleasant days a year, better than 98% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 96% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 94% of towns
- TransitBetter than 94% of towns
Where Los Olivos ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,613 a month, better than only 2% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 7% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 9% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Los Olivos
A household needs to earn about $404,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Los Olivos home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $165,455, 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 Olivos' effective rate of 0.59%, 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 Olivos
Los Olivos runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Los Olivos.
Who works in Los Olivos, and how
Work in Los Olivos centers on professional & technical and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 58%
- Work from home 31%
- Transit, walk, or bike 10%
Life in Los Olivos
Los Olivos has more restaurants and bars per resident than 98% of towns. The coast is about 22 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Los Olivos and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Los Olivos, month by month
Los Olivos sees roughly 177 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 65, with lows near 39. The comfortable stretch runs April through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 65° | 50° | 39° |
| April | 72° | 56° | 45° |
| July | 87° | 67° | 54° |
| October | 81° | 61° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Los Olivos
The nearest airport, Santa Barbara Municipal, is about 23 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Bob Hope, about 105 miles away.
The best schools in and around Los Olivos
Schools across Los Olivos average an A−, better than 86% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Los Olivos ElementaryA · 70% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Los Olivos school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Los Olivos 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 Olivos against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Los Olivos
Is Los Olivos a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Los Olivos ranks 3,974th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on high incomes, the weather, and walkability, and lowest on childcare costs and disaster risk. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Los Olivos expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,592,995. The overall cost of living runs about 74% above the national average. Set against a $165,455 median income, cost of living beats 76% of towns.
Is Los Olivos safe?
Los Olivos is safer than 19% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $467 per resident a year.
Compare Los Olivos with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Los Olivos. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Los Olivos 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 Olivos detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Los Olivos: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Los Olivos: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Los Olivos: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Los Olivos: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Los Olivos 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.