Best PlacesLucia, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Lucia, 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.
Lucia ranks 37,094th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on quiet by a wide margin, and cell coverage ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Lucia
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.
Lucia's strengths and weaknesses
Where Lucia ranks high
- QuietBetter than 97% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 168 pleasant days a year, better than 96% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 95% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 94% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 89% of towns
Where Lucia ranks low
- Cell coverageBetter than only 2% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 3% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 3% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,371 a month, better than only 7% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 8% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Lucia
A household needs to earn about $397,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Lucia home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $80,385, 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 Lucia's effective rate of 0.32%, 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 Lucia
Lucia runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Lucia.
Who works in Lucia, and how
Work in Lucia centers on hospitality & food and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 56%
- Work from home 16%
- Transit, walk, or bike 28%
Life in Lucia
The coast is about 8 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Lucia, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Lucia, month by month
Lucia sees roughly 168 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 69 degrees. January highs sit near 63, with lows near 43. The comfortable stretch runs April through November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 63° | 52° | 43° |
| April | 65° | 56° | 48° |
| July | 69° | 60° | 54° |
| October | 72° | 60° | 50° |
Flying in and out of Lucia
The nearest airport, Monterey Regional, is about 40 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Norman Y Mineta San Jose International, about 92 miles away.
The best schools in and around Lucia
Schools across Lucia average a C+, better than 57% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Captain Cooper ElementaryB · 50% proficient
Top high schools
- King City HighC · 30% proficient
- Greenfield HighD · 23% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Lucia school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Lucia 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 Lucia against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Lucia
Is Lucia a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Lucia ranks 37,094th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on quiet, the weather, and clean air, and lowest on cell coverage and the cost of living against local pay. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Lucia expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,627,242. The overall cost of living runs about 127% above the national average. Set against a $80,385 median income, cost of living beats 3% of towns.
Is Lucia safe?
Lucia is safer than 8% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $644 per resident a year.
Compare Lucia with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Lucia. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Lucia 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.
Lucia detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Lucia: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Lucia: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Lucia: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Lucia: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Lucia 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.