Best PlacesNorth Arroyo, Pasadena, CA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around North Arroyo, Pasadena, 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.

See the map of best neighborhoods

North Arroyo, Pasadena ranks 1,973rd of 5,983 U.S. neighborhoods on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on the weather by a wide margin, and air quality ranks lowest.

#1,973
of 5,983 neighborhoods
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
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of 5,983 neighborhoods
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The best neighborhoods in North Arroyo, Pasadena

Map of the best neighborhoods in the North Arroyo, Pasadena area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
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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.

North Arroyo, Pasadena's strengths and weaknesses

Top 5%The weather
Top 10%Big-city access
Top 10%High incomes
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare North Arroyo, Pasadena with other neighborhoods.

Where North Arroyo, Pasadena ranks high

  • Nice weatherabout 272 pleasant days a year, better than 96% of neighborhoods
  • Big-city accessBetter than 94% of neighborhoods
  • Household income$164,530 median, better than 94% of neighborhoods
  • Educational attainmentBetter than 83% of neighborhoods
  • Low property taxBetter than 82% of neighborhoods

Where North Arroyo, Pasadena ranks low

  • Air qualityBetter than only 7% of neighborhoods
  • QuietBetter than only 9% of neighborhoods
  • WalkabilityBetter than only 11% of neighborhoods
  • Heat safetyBetter than only 18% of neighborhoods
  • Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 20% of neighborhoods

What it costs to buy a home in North Arroyo, Pasadena

A household needs to earn about $346,000 a year to comfortably buy the median North Arroyo, Pasadena home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $164,530, so buying stretches a typical household.

Income to buy the median home
$346,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$8,080
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $1,358,403 home
Median rent
$2,747
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$6,926
Property tax$701
Homeowners insurance$453

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 North Arroyo, Pasadena's effective rate of 0.62%, 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.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in North Arroyo, Pasadena

North Arroyo, Pasadena runs older than the country.

Median age
51
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
26%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.5
near the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1817%
18 to 3414%
35 to 4920%
50 to 6423%
65 and older26%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for North Arroyo, Pasadena.


Who works in North Arroyo, Pasadena, and how

Work in North Arroyo, Pasadena centers on professional & technical and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
26%
above the national average
Unemployment
4.1%
below the national average
Job growth
+2.1%
/y 2019-2023, near the national pace

Largest industries

Professional & technical17%
Health care & social14%
Education13%
Retail trade7%
Manufacturing7%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 64%
  • Work from home 26%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 9%

Life in North Arroyo, Pasadena

North Arroyo, Pasadena has more parkland per resident than 78% of neighborhoods. The coast is about 23 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of North Arroyo, Pasadena and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Parkland
58 acres
about 5.6 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 78% of neighborhoods
To the coast
23 min
drive to the nearest ocean beaches

What the weather is like in North Arroyo, Pasadena, month by month

North Arroyo, Pasadena sees roughly 272 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 68, with lows near 48. The comfortable stretch runs October through May.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January68°60°48°
April76°68°57°
July89°81°69°
October83°74°60°

Flying in and out of North Arroyo, Pasadena

Bob Hope sits about 11 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 3.1 million passengers in 2025, with 54 nonstop destinations.

Nearest airport
BUR
Bob Hope, about 11 miles
Airport size
Medium hub
57th-busiest in the US, 54 nonstop destinations
Average drive
16 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around North Arroyo, Pasadena

Schools across North Arroyo, Pasadena average a C, better than 47% of neighborhoods.

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every North Arroyo, Pasadena school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


North Arroyo, Pasadena 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 North Arroyo, Pasadena against the other 5,982 neighborhoods.


Common questions about living in North Arroyo, Pasadena

Is North Arroyo, Pasadena a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, North Arroyo, Pasadena ranks 1,973rd of 5,983 neighborhoods. It scores highest on the weather, big-city access, and high incomes, and lowest on air quality and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is North Arroyo, Pasadena expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $1,358,403. The overall cost of living runs about 62% above the national average. Set against a $164,530 median income, cost of living beats 77% of neighborhoods.

Is North Arroyo, Pasadena safe?

North Arroyo, Pasadena is safer than 49% of neighborhoods. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $474 per resident a year.


Compare North Arroyo, Pasadena with other neighborhoods


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to North Arroyo, Pasadena. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in North Arroyo, Pasadena 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.

North Arroyo, Pasadena detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for North Arroyo, Pasadena: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in North Arroyo, Pasadena: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of North Arroyo, Pasadena: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in North Arroyo, Pasadena: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

North Arroyo, Pasadena detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.