Best PlacesMorena, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Morena, 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.
Morena ranks 21,676th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on the weather by a wide margin, and disaster risk is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Morena
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.
Morena's strengths and weaknesses
Where Morena ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 202 pleasant days a year, better than 99% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 96% of towns
- Household income$128,029 median, better than 95% of towns
- QuietBetter than 93% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than 88% of towns
Where Morena ranks low
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 3% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,432 a month, better than only 5% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Morena
A household needs to earn about $200,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Morena home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $128,029, 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 Morena's effective rate of 0.63%, 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 Morena
Morena runs older 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 Morena.
Who works in Morena, and how
Work in Morena centers on retail trade and manufacturing. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 90%
- Work from home 9%
- Transit, walk, or bike 1%
Life in Morena
The coast is about 32 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Morena, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Morena, month by month
Morena sees roughly 202 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 68, with lows near 43. The comfortable stretch runs February through November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 68° | 54° | 43° |
| April | 74° | 61° | 52° |
| July | 87° | 74° | 65° |
| October | 82° | 67° | 56° |
Flying in and out of Morena
San Diego International sits about 22 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 12.7 million passengers in 2025, with 121 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Morena
Schools across Morena average a C, better than 30% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Barona Indian CharterD− · 15% proficient
Top middle schools
- Tierra Del Sol MiddleD+ · 25% proficient
Top high schools
- Ramona HighB+ · 52% proficient
- Julian HighC+ · 37% proficient
- El Capitan HighC · 32% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Morena school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Morena 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 Morena against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Morena
Is Morena a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Morena ranks 21,676th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on the weather, big-city access, and high incomes, and lowest on disaster risk and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Morena expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $783,195. The overall cost of living runs about 32% above the national average. Set against a $128,029 median income, cost of living beats 72% of towns.
Is Morena safe?
Morena is safer than 43% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $330 per resident a year.
Compare Morena with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Morena. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Morena 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.
Morena detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Morena: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Morena: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Morena: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Morena: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Morena 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.