Best PlacesMeadow Vista, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Meadow Vista, 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.
Meadow Vista ranks 8,081st 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 Meadow Vista
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.
Meadow Vista's strengths and weaknesses
Where Meadow Vista ranks high
- Household income$115,453 median, better than 92% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 91% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 90% of towns
- TransitBetter than 88% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 88% of towns
Where Meadow Vista ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,572 a month, better than only 2% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 5% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 19% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 20% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Meadow Vista
A household needs to earn about $172,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Meadow Vista home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $115,453, 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 Meadow Vista's effective rate of 0.64%, 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 Meadow Vista
Meadow Vista runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Meadow Vista.
Who works in Meadow Vista, and how
Work in Meadow Vista centers on health care & social and professional & technical. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 76%
- Work from home 22%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Meadow Vista
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Meadow Vista.
What the weather is like in Meadow Vista, month by month
Meadow Vista sees roughly 130 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 94 degrees. January highs sit near 56, with lows near 40. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 56° | 47° | 40° |
| April | 69° | 57° | 48° |
| July | 94° | 81° | 67° |
| October | 76° | 64° | 53° |
Flying in and out of Meadow Vista
Sacramento International sits about 37 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 6.8 million passengers in 2025, with 85 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Meadow Vista
Schools across Meadow Vista average a B−, better than 53% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Cottage Hill ElementaryC · 33% proficient
Top middle schools
- Magnolia IntermediateC · 32% proficient
- Weimar HillsC− · 30% proficient
Top high schools
- Bear River HighA− · 65% proficient
- Colfax HighB · 48% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Meadow Vista school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Meadow Vista 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 Meadow Vista against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Meadow Vista
Is Meadow Vista a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Meadow Vista ranks 8,081st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on high incomes, health care access, and an educated workforce, and lowest on childcare costs and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Meadow Vista expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $674,385. The overall cost of living runs about 26% above the national average. Set against a $115,453 median income, cost of living beats 70% of towns.
Is Meadow Vista safe?
Yes, Meadow Vista is safer than 84% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $220 per resident a year.
Compare Meadow Vista with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Meadow Vista. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Meadow Vista 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.
Meadow Vista detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Meadow Vista: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Meadow Vista: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Meadow Vista: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Meadow Vista: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Meadow Vista 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.