Best PlacesMountain View, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Mountain View, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages hide a wide spread here, so the area matters as much as the address. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Mountain View ranks 115th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on population health by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Mountain View
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.
The best areas in Mountain View
The parts of Mountain View, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first.
Blossom Valley-Mountain View
Cuesta Park, Old Mountain View & Waverly Park
Jackson Park & Rex Manor
Monta Loma
Martens-Carmelita, Sunnyvale West & Cuernavaca
Shoreline West
Whisman Station & North Whisman
Scores across Mountain View run from about the 20th to the 100th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Mountain View's strengths and weaknesses
Where Mountain View ranks high
- Health outlookBetter than 99% of cities
- BikingBetter than 99% of cities
- Household income$190,437 median, better than 99% of cities
- Educational attainmentBetter than 97% of cities
- Nice weatherabout 243 pleasant days a year, better than 95% of cities
Where Mountain View ranks low
- Cheap childcare$2,106 a month, better than only 2% of cities
- QuietBetter than only 5% of cities
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 10% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 14% of cities
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 19% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Mountain View
A household needs to earn about $416,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Mountain View home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $190,437, 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 Mountain View's effective rate of 0.69%, 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 Mountain View
Mountain View runs younger than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Mountain View.
Who works in Mountain View, and how
Work in Mountain View centers on professional & technical and information. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 58%
- Work from home 30%
- Transit, walk, or bike 12%
Life in Mountain View
Mountain View has more restaurants and bars per resident than 80% of cities and more parkland per resident than 82% of cities. The coast is about 30 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Mountain View and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Mountain View, month by month
Mountain View sees roughly 243 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 76 degrees. January highs sit near 60, with lows near 44. The comfortable stretch runs March through November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 60° | 51° | 44° |
| April | 70° | 58° | 49° |
| July | 76° | 66° | 59° |
| October | 74° | 63° | 54° |
Flying in and out of Mountain View
Norman Y Mineta San Jose International sits about 9 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 5.3 million passengers in 2025, with 67 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Mountain View
Schools across Mountain View average a B+, better than 80% of cities.
Top middle schools
- Jane Lathrop Stanford MiddleA+ · 83% proficient
- Ellen Fletcher MiddleA+ · 83% proficient
- Georgina P. Blach Junior HighD+ · 25% proficient
Top high schools
- Henry M. Gunn HighA+ · 89% proficient
- Homestead HighA+ · 88% proficient
- Mountain View HighA+ · 86% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Mountain View school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Mountain View 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 Mountain View against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Mountain View suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 71% of cities and 30% already work from home.
Retirees
The weather beats 95% of cities and health care access beats 55%.
Common questions about living in Mountain View
Is Mountain View a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Mountain View ranks 115th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on population health, biking, and high incomes, and lowest on childcare costs and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Mountain View expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,618,163. The overall cost of living runs about 80% above the national average. Set against a $190,437 median income, cost of living beats 71% of cities.
Is Mountain View safe?
Mountain View is safer than 33% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $403 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Mountain View?
July highs average about 76 degrees, and January highs near 60 with lows near 44. That works out to about 243 pleasant days a year, more than 95% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Mountain View?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Blossom Valley-Mountain View, Cuesta Park, Old Mountain View & Waverly Park, and Jackson Park & Rex Manor. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Compare Mountain View with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Mountain View. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Mountain View 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.
Mountain View detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Mountain View: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Mountain View: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Mountain View: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Mountain View: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Mountain View 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.