Best PlacesNapa, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Napa metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Distance to the water drives a lot of the difference between one part and the next. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Oleg Alexandrov, CC BY-SA 4.0, via wiki
Napa ranks 171st of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 49 minutes away. Its strengths are high incomes and biking. The cost shows up in taxes, childcare costs, and disaster risk.
The best neighborhoods in the Napa metro
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 Napa
The towns and districts of the Napa metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
American Canyon
More households have young kids, fewer homes sit empty, and prices have run up less.
Downtown Napa
Streets are more walkable, though it is noisier.
St. Helena, Calistoga & Angwin
Crime runs higher and biking is worse.
Napa shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 10% of the country and others in the top 6%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Napa's strengths and weaknesses
Napa lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. High incomes is the standout, in the top 2% of metro areas. Biking and big-city access follow.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Taxes, childcare costs, and disaster risk hold the score down. Cost swings more from one part of Napa to another than it does between Napa and its neighbors, which the map below shows.
Where Napa ranks high
- Household income$119,042 median, better than 98% of metro areas
- BikingBetter than 96% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than 94% of metro areas
- WalkabilityBetter than 94% of metro areas
- Nice weatherabout 160 pleasant days a year, better than 91% of metro areas
Where Napa ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$1,414 a month, better than only 8% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 10% of metro areas
- Crime safetyBetter than only 14% of metro areas
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 17% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Napa
A household needs to earn about $231,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Napa home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $119,042, 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 Napa's effective rate of 0.64%, 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 Napa
Napa runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Napa.
Who works in Napa, and how
Work in Napa centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 78%
- Work from home 15%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Napa
Napa has more restaurants and bars per resident than 95% of metro areas and more parkland per resident than 69% of metro areas. The coast is about 49 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Napa and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Napa growing, and who is moving in?
Napa has lost about 6% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from San Francisco, CA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Napa go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Napa, month by month
Napa sees roughly 160 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 81 degrees. January highs sit near 61, with lows near 38. The comfortable stretch runs April through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 61° | 49° | 38° |
| April | 71° | 56° | 42° |
| July | 81° | 65° | 53° |
| October | 79° | 61° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Napa
The nearest airport, Charles M Schulz/Sonoma County, is about 31 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is San Francisco Bay Oakland International, about 41 miles away.
The best schools in and around Napa
Schools across Napa average a B−, better than 64% of metro areas.
Top middle schools
- Winters MiddleD− · 15% proficient
Top high schools
- Saint Helena HighB+ · 55% proficient
- Angelo Rodriguez HighB+ · 51% proficient
- Vallejo HighD+ · 25% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Napa school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Napa 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 Napa against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Napa suits
Common questions about living in Napa
Is Napa a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Napa ranks 171st of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on high incomes, biking, and big-city access, and lowest on taxes and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Napa expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $902,030. The overall cost of living runs about 35% above the national average. Set against a $119,042 median income, cost of living beats 52% of metro areas.
Is Napa safe?
Napa is safer than 14% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $485 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Napa?
July highs average about 81 degrees, and January highs near 61 with lows near 38. That works out to about 160 pleasant days a year, more than 91% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Napa?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are American Canyon, Downtown Napa, and St. Helena, Calistoga & Angwin. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Napa good for families?
Schools beat 64% of metro areas, crime safety beats 14%, and childcare runs $1,414 a month.
Is Napa good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 52% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 42% of metro areas. About 15% of workers already work from home.
Compare Napa with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Napa. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Napa 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.
Napa detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Napa: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Napa: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Napa: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Napa: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Napa 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.