Best PlacesPalos Verdes Estates, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Palos Verdes Estates, 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.
Palos Verdes Estates ranks 584th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on the weather by a wide margin, and air quality ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Palos Verdes Estates
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.
Palos Verdes Estates' strengths and weaknesses
Where Palos Verdes Estates ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 320 pleasant days a year, better than 99% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 99% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 99% of towns
- Household income$229,637 median, better than 99% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 98% of towns
Where Palos Verdes Estates ranks low
- Air qualityBetter than only 1% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 10% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 11% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,130 a month, better than only 15% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Palos Verdes Estates
A household needs to earn about $510,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Palos Verdes Estates home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $229,637, 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 Palos Verdes Estates' effective rate of 0.72%, 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 Palos Verdes Estates
Palos Verdes Estates runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Palos Verdes Estates.
Who works in Palos Verdes Estates, and how
Work in Palos Verdes Estates centers on professional & technical and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 66%
- Work from home 28%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Palos Verdes Estates
The coast is about 1 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Palos Verdes Estates, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Palos Verdes Estates, month by month
Palos Verdes Estates sees roughly 320 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 79 degrees. January highs sit near 67, with lows near 48. Every month averages in that range.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 67° | 59° | 48° |
| April | 71° | 64° | 53° |
| July | 79° | 73° | 64° |
| October | 78° | 70° | 58° |
Flying in and out of Palos Verdes Estates
The nearest airport, Jack Northrop Field/Hawthorne Municipal, is about 10 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Los Angeles International, about 11 miles away.
The best schools in and around Palos Verdes Estates
Schools across Palos Verdes Estates average an A, better than 81% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Rancho Vista ElementaryD+ · 25% proficient
Top high schools
- South HighD+ · 25% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Palos Verdes Estates school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Palos Verdes Estates 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 Palos Verdes Estates against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Palos Verdes Estates
Is Palos Verdes Estates a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Palos Verdes Estates ranks 584th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on the weather, big-city access, and an educated workforce, and lowest on air quality and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Palos Verdes Estates expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,970,681. The overall cost of living runs about 77% above the national average. Set against a $229,637 median income, cost of living beats 96% of towns.
Is Palos Verdes Estates safe?
Palos Verdes Estates is safer than 25% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $417 per resident a year.
Compare Palos Verdes Estates with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Palos Verdes Estates. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Palos Verdes Estates 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.
Palos Verdes Estates detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Palos Verdes Estates: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Palos Verdes Estates: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Palos Verdes Estates: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Palos Verdes Estates: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Palos Verdes Estates 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.