Best PlacesPacific Palisades, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Pacific Palisades, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Pacific Palisades ranks 310th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on an educated workforce by a wide margin, and cell coverage ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Pacific Palisades
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.
Pacific Palisades' strengths and weaknesses
Where Pacific Palisades ranks high
- Educational attainmentBetter than 99% of cities
- Nice weatherabout 325 pleasant days a year, better than 99% of cities
- Household income$187,154 median, better than 99% of cities
- Healthcare accessBetter than 95% of cities
- Big-city accessBetter than 94% of cities
Where Pacific Palisades ranks low
- Cell coverageBetter than only 3% of cities
- Air qualityBetter than only 9% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 14% of cities
- Low vacancyBetter than only 18% of cities
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 20% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Pacific Palisades
A household needs to earn about $502,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Pacific Palisades home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $187,154, 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 Pacific Palisades' 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 Pacific Palisades
Pacific Palisades runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Pacific Palisades.
Who works in Pacific Palisades, and how
Work in Pacific Palisades centers on professional & technical and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 56%
- Work from home 37%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Pacific Palisades
Pacific Palisades has more parkland per resident than 80% of cities. The coast is about 2 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Pacific Palisades and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Pacific Palisades, month by month
Pacific Palisades sees roughly 325 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 76 degrees. January highs sit near 68, with lows near 47. Every month averages in that range.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 68° | 57° | 47° |
| April | 69° | 60° | 53° |
| July | 76° | 68° | 63° |
| October | 78° | 67° | 58° |
Flying in and out of Pacific Palisades
Los Angeles International sits about 10 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 36.7 million passengers in 2025, with 247 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Pacific Palisades
Schools across Pacific Palisades average an A−, better than 71% of cities.
Top middle schools
- Lincoln MiddleD+ · 25% proficient
Top high schools
- Early College Academy-la Trade Tech CollegeB · 50% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Pacific Palisades school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Pacific Palisades 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 Pacific Palisades against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Pacific Palisades suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 37% already work from home.
Retirees
The weather beats 99% of cities, health care access beats 95%, and it is quieter than 58%.
Common questions about living in Pacific Palisades
Is Pacific Palisades a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Pacific Palisades ranks 310th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on an educated workforce, the weather, and high incomes, and lowest on cell coverage and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Pacific Palisades expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,963,521. The overall cost of living runs about 112% above the national average. Set against a $187,154 median income, cost of living beats 54% of cities.
Is Pacific Palisades safe?
Pacific Palisades is safer than 24% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $422 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Pacific Palisades?
July highs average about 76 degrees, and January highs near 68 with lows near 47. That works out to about 325 pleasant days a year, more than 99% of cities.
Is Pacific Palisades good for families?
Schools beat 71% of cities, crime safety beats 24%, and childcare runs $1,130 a month.
Compare Pacific Palisades with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Pacific Palisades. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Pacific Palisades 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.
Pacific Palisades detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Pacific Palisades: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Pacific Palisades: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Pacific Palisades: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Pacific Palisades: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Pacific Palisades 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.