Best PlacesOrange County, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in Orange County, 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.
Orange County ranks 150th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 11 minutes away. Its strengths are the weather and big-city access. The cost shows up in air quality, noise, and childcare costs.
The best neighborhoods in Orange County
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 Orange County
The parts of Orange County, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the county.
Irvine
More adults hold degrees, incomes run higher, and local pay stretches further.
Yorba Linda
More residents vote and health care is easier to reach.
Mission Viejo, Lake Forest & Laguna Niguel
Streets are more car-dependent and transit reaches fewer jobs.
Costa Mesa & Newport Beach
Fewer households have young kids and more homes sit empty.
Huntington Beach, Westminster & Garden Grove
Scores close to Costa Mesa & Newport Beach, except that prices have run up less here.
Orange, Placentia & Brea
It is noisier.
Santa Ana
Homes cost less, though schools score lower.
Anaheim, Buena Park & Fullerton
Scores close to Santa Ana, except that heat risk is higher here.
Orange County shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 8% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Orange County's strengths and weaknesses
Orange County ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. The weather is the standout, in the top 1% of counties. Big-city access and biking follow.
The one real hole is air quality, near the bottom of the country. Noise and childcare costs also cost it ground. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Orange County ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 298 pleasant days a year, better than 99% of counties
- Big-city accessBetter than 99% of counties
- BikingBetter than 98% of counties
- TransitBetter than 98% of counties
- Household income$127,368 median, better than 98% of counties
Where Orange County ranks low
- Air qualityBetter than only 2% of counties
- QuietBetter than only 2% of counties
- Cheap childcare$1,494 a month, better than only 3% of counties
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 4% of counties
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 6% of counties
What it costs to buy a home in Orange County
A household needs to earn about $254,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Orange County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $127,368, 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 Orange County's effective rate of 0.65%, 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 Orange County
Orange County's age mix sits close to the national median, 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 Orange County.
Who works in Orange County, and how
Work in Orange County centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 76%
- Work from home 19%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Orange County
The coast is about 11 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Orange County, which the map shows.
Is Orange County growing, and who is moving in?
Orange County has grown about 1% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from the rest of the Los Angeles, CA metro.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Orange County go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Orange County, month by month
Orange County sees roughly 298 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 81 degrees. January highs sit near 69, with lows near 48. Every month averages in that range.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 69° | 58° | 48° |
| April | 73° | 63° | 56° |
| July | 81° | 72° | 66° |
| October | 81° | 69° | 61° |
Flying in and out of Orange County
John Wayne/Orange County sits about 4 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 5.5 million passengers in 2025, with 80 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Orange County
Schools across Orange County average a B−, better than 71% of counties.
Top elementary schools
- Roy O. Andersen ElementaryA+ · 80% proficient
- Newport Coast ElementaryA+ · 76% proficient
- Newcomb AcademyA+ · 76% proficient
Top middle schools
- Tetzlaff (martin B.) MiddleA+ · 90% proficient
- Valadez Middle School AcademyA+ · 75% proficient
- Rogers MiddleA · 62% proficient
Top high schools
- Oxford AcademyA+ · 93% proficient
- Troy HighA+ · 88% proficient
- Fountain Valley HighA+ · 87% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Orange County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Orange County 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 Orange County against the other 3,143 counties.
Who Orange County suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 19% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Orange County
Is Orange County a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Orange County ranks 150th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on the weather, big-city access, and biking, 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 Orange County expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $992,294. The overall cost of living runs about 50% above the national average. Set against a $127,368 median income, cost of living beats 58% of counties.
Is Orange County safe?
Yes, Orange County is safer than 63% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $334 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Orange County?
July highs average about 81 degrees, and January highs near 69 with lows near 48. That works out to about 298 pleasant days a year, more than 100% of counties.
What are the best neighborhoods in Orange County?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Irvine, Yorba Linda, and Mission Viejo, Lake Forest & Laguna Niguel. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Orange County good for families?
Schools beat 71% of counties, crime safety beats 63%, and childcare runs $1,494 a month.
Is Orange County good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 58% of counties, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 82% of counties. About 19% of workers already work from home.
Compare Orange County with other counties
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Orange County. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Orange County 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.
Orange County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Orange County: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Orange County: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Orange County: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Orange County: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Orange County 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.