Best PlacesMill Valley, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Mill Valley, 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.
Mill Valley ranks 1,400th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on biking by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Mill Valley
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.
Mill Valley's strengths and weaknesses
Where Mill Valley ranks high
- BikingBetter than 99% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 99% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 99% of towns
- Household income$180,121 median, better than 99% of towns
- TransitBetter than 98% of towns
Where Mill Valley ranks low
- Cheap childcare$2,211 a month, better than only 1% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 11% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 15% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 15% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Mill Valley
A household needs to earn about $489,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Mill Valley home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $180,121, 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 Mill Valley's effective rate of 0.73%, 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 Mill Valley
Mill Valley runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Mill Valley.
Who works in Mill Valley, and how
Work in Mill Valley centers on professional & technical and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 57%
- Work from home 35%
- Transit, walk, or bike 8%
Life in Mill Valley
Mill Valley has more restaurants and bars per resident than 82% of towns and more parkland per resident than 82% of towns. The coast is about 7 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Mill Valley and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Mill Valley, month by month
Mill Valley sees roughly 168 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 60, with lows near 42. The comfortable stretch runs April through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 60° | 50° | 42° |
| April | 71° | 57° | 46° |
| July | 87° | 66° | 52° |
| October | 79° | 61° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Mill Valley
San Francisco Bay Oakland International sits about 21 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 4.5 million passengers in 2025, with 64 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Mill Valley
Schools across Mill Valley average an A, better than 85% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Bolinas-stinson ElementaryB · 50% proficient
- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. AcademyD · 18% proficient
Top high schools
- Tamalpais HighA− · 64% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Mill Valley school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Mill Valley 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 Mill Valley against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Mill Valley
Is Mill Valley a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Mill Valley ranks 1,400th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on biking, an educated workforce, and walkability, and lowest on childcare costs and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Mill Valley expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,891,357. The overall cost of living runs about 63% above the national average. Set against a $180,121 median income, cost of living beats 90% of towns.
Is Mill Valley safe?
Mill Valley is safer than 15% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $518 per resident a year.
Compare Mill Valley with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Mill Valley. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Mill Valley 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.
Mill Valley detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Mill Valley: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Mill Valley: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Mill Valley: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Mill Valley: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Mill Valley 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.