Best PlacesOrangevale, CA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Orangevale, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Orangevale ranks 1,249th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores best on low disaster risk, and crime is the weak spot.

#1,249
of 2,098 cities
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 2,098 cities
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Orangevale

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Orangevale area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

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.

Orangevale's strengths and weaknesses

Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Orangevale with other cities.

Where Orangevale ranks high

  • Disaster safetyBetter than 84% of cities
  • Nice weatherabout 149 pleasant days a year, better than 82% of cities
  • Low property taxBetter than 72% of cities
  • QuietBetter than 67% of cities
  • TransitBetter than 67% of cities

Where Orangevale ranks low

  • Crime safetyBetter than only 12% of cities
  • Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 14% of cities
  • Heat safetyBetter than only 20% of cities
  • State infrastructureBetter than only 24% of cities
  • Tree shadeBetter than only 26% of cities

What it costs to buy a home in Orangevale

A household needs to earn about $144,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Orangevale home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $103,812, so buying stretches a typical household.

Income to buy the median home
$144,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$3,365
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $559,420 home
Median rent
$1,969
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$2,852
Property tax$326
Homeowners insurance$186

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 Orangevale's effective rate of 0.70%, 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 Orangevale

Orangevale's age mix sits close to the national median.

Median age
42
about the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
20%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.7
near the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1821%
18 to 3420%
35 to 4920%
50 to 6419%
65 and older20%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Orangevale.


Who works in Orangevale, and how

Work in Orangevale centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
19%
above the national average
Unemployment
3.5%
below the national average
Job growth
+3.6%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social12%
Retail trade11%
Public administration11%
Construction10%
Professional & technical8%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 77%
  • Work from home 19%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 4%

Life in Orangevale

Orangevale has more parkland per resident than 81% of cities. That concentrates in some parts of Orangevale and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
53
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 16.0 per 10,000 residents, more than 50% of cities
Parkland
94 acres
about 2.8 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 81% of cities

What the weather is like in Orangevale, month by month

Orangevale sees roughly 149 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 96 degrees. January highs sit near 58, with lows near 40. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January58°48°40°
April74°60°47°
July96°77°60°
October80°64°50°

Flying in and out of Orangevale

Sacramento International sits about 20 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 6.8 million passengers in 2025, with 85 nonstop destinations.

Nearest airport
SMF
Sacramento International, about 20 miles
Airport size
Medium hub
36th-busiest in the US, 85 nonstop destinations
Average drive
28 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Orangevale

Schools across Orangevale average a C+, better than 35% of cities.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

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


Orangevale 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 Orangevale against the other 2,097 cities.


Who Orangevale suits

Families

Schools land around the 35th percentile.

See the families priority ↑

Remote workers

19% already work from home.

See the remote-work priority ↑

Retirees

The weather beats 82% of cities and it is quieter than 67%.

See the retirees priority ↑


Common questions about living in Orangevale

Is Orangevale a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Orangevale ranks 1,249th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on low disaster risk, the weather, and low property taxes, and lowest on crime and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Orangevale expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $559,420. The overall cost of living runs about 17% above the national average. Set against a $103,812 median income, cost of living beats 42% of cities.

Is Orangevale safe?

Orangevale is safer than 12% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $477 per resident a year.

What is the weather like in Orangevale?

July highs average about 96 degrees, and January highs near 58 with lows near 40. That works out to about 149 pleasant days a year, more than 82% of cities.

Is Orangevale good for families?

Schools beat 35% of cities, crime safety beats 12%, and childcare runs $1,332 a month.


Compare Orangevale with other cities


Sources and methodology

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

Orangevale detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

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

Orangevale 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.