Best PlacesPalmdale, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Palmdale, 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.
Palmdale ranks 422nd of 445 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on long commutes and air quality. It does better on quiet, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in Palmdale
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.
Palmdale's strengths and weaknesses
Palmdale ranks near the bottom because several of the basics fall short at once. Quiet, big-city access, and the weather carry most of that.
The weak spots are broad rather than narrow: long commutes, air quality, and education levels all drag on the score. Those are area averages, and the map below shows which parts run well above them.
Where Palmdale ranks high
- QuietBetter than 91% of cities
- Big-city accessBetter than 88% of cities
- Nice weatherabout 173 pleasant days a year, better than 80% of cities
- Low vacancyBetter than 80% of cities
- Cell coverageBetter than 54% of cities
Where Palmdale ranks low
- Short commute39.8 minutes each way, better than only 2% of cities
- Air qualityBetter than only 3% of cities
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 5% of cities
- Internet speedBetter than only 6% of cities
- WalkabilityBetter than only 7% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Palmdale
A household needs to earn about $125,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Palmdale home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $87,743, 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 Palmdale's effective rate of 0.94%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Palmdale
Palmdale runs younger than the country, 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 Palmdale.
Who works in Palmdale, and how
Work in Palmdale centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 87%
- Work from home 9%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Palmdale
Palmdale has more parkland per resident than 78% of cities. That concentrates in some parts of Palmdale and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Palmdale, month by month
Palmdale sees roughly 173 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 101 degrees. January highs sit near 61, with lows near 33. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 61° | 46° | 33° |
| April | 78° | 61° | 45° |
| July | 101° | 85° | 68° |
| October | 84° | 65° | 48° |
Flying in and out of Palmdale
Bob Hope sits about 30 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 3.1 million passengers in 2025, with 54 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Palmdale
Schools across Palmdale average a C, better than 41% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Hughes-elizabeth LakesC · 34% proficient
- Gregg Anderson AcademyD+ · 25% proficient
- Eastside ElementaryF · 5% proficient
Top middle schools
- Hillview MiddleF · 10% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Palmdale school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Palmdale 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 Palmdale against the other 444 cities.
Who Palmdale suits
Common questions about living in Palmdale
Is Palmdale a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Palmdale ranks 422nd of 445 cities. It scores highest on quiet, big-city access, and the weather, and lowest on long commutes and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Palmdale expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $468,723. The overall cost of living runs about 13% above the national average. Set against a $87,743 median income, cost of living beats 16% of cities.
Is Palmdale safe?
Palmdale is safer than 47% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $437 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Palmdale?
July highs average about 101 degrees, and January highs near 61 with lows near 33. That works out to about 173 pleasant days a year, more than 80% of cities.
Is Palmdale good for families?
Schools beat 41% of cities, crime safety beats 47%, and childcare runs $1,130 a month.
Is Palmdale good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 16% of cities, though advertised internet speeds beat only 6% of cities. About 9% of workers already work from home.
Compare Palmdale with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Palmdale. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Palmdale 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.
Palmdale detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Palmdale: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Palmdale: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Palmdale: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Palmdale: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Palmdale 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.