Best PlacesPine Valley, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Pine Valley, 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.
Pine Valley ranks 33,288th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on the weather by a wide margin, and disaster risk is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Pine Valley
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.
Pine Valley's strengths and weaknesses
Where Pine Valley ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 172 pleasant days a year, better than 97% of towns
- Household income$130,075 median, better than 95% of towns
- TransitBetter than 93% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 92% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 90% of towns
Where Pine Valley ranks low
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 1% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 2% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,432 a month, better than only 5% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Pine Valley
A household needs to earn about $154,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Pine Valley home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $130,075, 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 Pine Valley's effective rate of 0.58%, 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 Pine Valley
Pine Valley runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Pine Valley.
Who works in Pine Valley, and how
Work in Pine Valley centers on retail trade and professional & technical. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 73%
- Work from home 23%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Pine Valley
The coast is about 46 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Pine Valley, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Pine Valley, month by month
Pine Valley sees roughly 172 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 68, with lows near 43. The comfortable stretch runs February through November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 68° | 54° | 43° |
| April | 74° | 61° | 52° |
| July | 87° | 74° | 65° |
| October | 82° | 67° | 56° |
Flying in and out of Pine Valley
San Diego International sits about 40 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 12.7 million passengers in 2025, with 121 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Pine Valley
Schools across Pine Valley average a D+, better than 12% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Descanso ElementaryC− · 27% proficient
- Potrero ElementaryF · 10% proficient
Top middle schools
- Pine Valley MiddleD · 20% proficient
Top high schools
- Julian HighC+ · 37% proficient
- Mountain Empire HighD · 22% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Pine Valley school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Pine Valley 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 Pine Valley against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Pine Valley
Is Pine Valley a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Pine Valley ranks 33,288th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on the weather, high incomes, and transit, and lowest on disaster risk and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Pine Valley expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $609,689. The overall cost of living runs about 25% above the national average. Set against a $130,075 median income, cost of living beats 80% of towns.
Is Pine Valley safe?
Pine Valley is safer than 29% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $386 per resident a year.
Compare Pine Valley with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Pine Valley. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Pine Valley 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.
Pine Valley detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Pine Valley: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Pine Valley: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Pine Valley: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Pine Valley: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Pine Valley 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.