Best PlacesMountain View, OR 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. 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.
Mountain View ranks 19,355th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on state infrastructure by a wide margin, and cell coverage ranks lowest.
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.
Mountain View's strengths and weaknesses
Where Mountain View ranks high
- State infrastructureBetter than 97% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 93% of towns
- Household income$116,755 median, better than 92% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 87% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 135 pleasant days a year, better than 87% of towns
Where Mountain View ranks low
- Cell coverageBetter than only 6% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 7% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 8% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 12% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Mountain View
A household needs to earn about $152,000 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 $116,755, 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 0.61%, 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 older than the country.
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 construction and hospitality & food. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 73%
- Work from home 20%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Mountain View
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Mountain View.
What the weather is like in Mountain View, month by month
Mountain View sees roughly 135 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 97 degrees. January highs sit near 49, with lows near 26. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, August, and September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 49° | 37° | 26° |
| April | 68° | 50° | 33° |
| July | 97° | 77° | 55° |
| October | 72° | 53° | 35° |
Flying in and out of Mountain View
The nearest airport, Rogue Valley International/Medford, is about 30 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Portland International, about 237 miles away.
The best schools in and around Mountain View
Schools across Mountain View average a B, better than 72% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Henley Elementary SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
- Keno Elementary SchoolD+ · 24% proficient
Top middle schools
- Henley Middle SchoolC− · 29% proficient
Top high schools
- Eagle Point High SchoolA+ · 95% 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 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Mountain View
Is Mountain View a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Mountain View ranks 19,355th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on state infrastructure, an educated workforce, and high incomes, and lowest on cell coverage and internet speeds. 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 $596,538. The overall cost of living runs about 5% above the national average. Set against a $116,755 median income, cost of living beats 87% of towns.
Is Mountain View safe?
Mountain View is safer than 29% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $494 per resident a year.
Compare Mountain View with other towns
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.