Best PlacesMontclair, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Montclair, 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.
Montclair ranks 1,755th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on the weather by a wide margin, and air quality ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Montclair
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.
Montclair's strengths and weaknesses
Where Montclair ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 275 pleasant days a year, better than 97% of cities
- Cell coverageBetter than 96% of cities
- Big-city accessBetter than 93% of cities
- Low vacancyBetter than 92% of cities
- Internet speedBetter than 90% of cities
Where Montclair ranks low
- Air qualityBetter than only 2% of cities
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 2% of cities
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 3% of cities
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 5% of cities
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 8% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Montclair
A household needs to earn about $135,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Montclair home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $85,329, 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 Montclair's 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 Montclair
Montclair runs younger than the country, 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 Montclair.
Who works in Montclair, and how
Work in Montclair centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 88%
- Work from home 7%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Montclair
Montclair has more restaurants and bars per resident than 79% of cities. The coast is about 35 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Montclair and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Montclair, month by month
Montclair sees roughly 275 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 66, with lows near 49. The comfortable stretch runs September through June.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 66° | 56° | 49° |
| April | 74° | 61° | 53° |
| July | 90° | 77° | 67° |
| October | 81° | 69° | 61° |
Flying in and out of Montclair
Ontario International sits about 6 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 3.5 million passengers in 2025, with 62 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Montclair
Schools across Montclair average a C−, better than 22% of cities.
Top high schools
- Montclair HighC+ · 39% proficient
- Ontario HighC+ · 36% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Montclair school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Montclair 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 Montclair against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Montclair suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 7% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Montclair
Is Montclair a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Montclair ranks 1,755th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on the weather, cell coverage, and big-city access, and lowest on air quality and civic engagement. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Montclair expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $530,923. The overall cost of living runs about 23% above the national average. Set against a $85,329 median income, cost of living beats 8% of cities.
Is Montclair safe?
Montclair is safer than 10% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $548 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Montclair?
July highs average about 90 degrees, and January highs near 66 with lows near 49. That works out to about 275 pleasant days a year, more than 97% of cities.
Is Montclair good for families?
Schools beat 22% of cities, crime safety beats 10%, and childcare runs $1,252 a month.
Compare Montclair with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Montclair. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Montclair 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.
Montclair detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Montclair: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Montclair: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Montclair: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Montclair: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Montclair 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.