Best PlacesPortola Valley, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Portola 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.
Portola Valley ranks 365th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on the weather by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Portola 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.
Portola Valley's strengths and weaknesses
Where Portola Valley ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 226 pleasant days a year, better than 99% of towns
- Household income$245,643 median, better than 99% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 99% of towns
- School gradeA+, better than 98% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 98% of towns
Where Portola Valley ranks low
- Cheap childcare$2,230 a month, better than only 1% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 7% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 17% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 18% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Portola Valley
A household needs to earn about $514,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Portola Valley home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $245,643, 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 Portola Valley's effective rate of 0.68%, 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 Portola Valley
Portola Valley runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Portola Valley.
Who works in Portola Valley, and how
Work in Portola Valley centers on professional & technical and finance & insurance. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 50%
- Work from home 43%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Portola Valley
Portola Valley has more restaurants and bars per resident than 66% of towns. The coast is about 26 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Portola Valley and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Portola Valley, month by month
Portola Valley sees roughly 226 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 75 degrees. January highs sit near 59, with lows near 45. The comfortable stretch runs February through November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 59° | 53° | 45° |
| April | 68° | 60° | 49° |
| July | 75° | 68° | 60° |
| October | 74° | 65° | 53° |
Flying in and out of Portola Valley
Norman Y Mineta San Jose International sits about 16 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 5.3 million passengers in 2025, with 67 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Portola Valley
Schools across Portola Valley average an A+, better than 98% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Las Lomitas ElementaryA+ · 83% proficient
- Ormondale ElementaryA · 70% proficient
Top middle schools
- La Entrada MiddleA+ · 87% proficient
- Ellen Fletcher MiddleA+ · 83% proficient
- Corte MaderaA+ · 77% proficient
Top high schools
- Henry M. Gunn HighA+ · 89% proficient
- Palo Alto HighA+ · 85% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Portola Valley school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Portola 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 Portola Valley against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Portola Valley
Is Portola Valley a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Portola Valley ranks 365th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on the weather, high incomes, and an educated workforce, and lowest on childcare costs and disaster risk. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Portola Valley expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,998,944. The overall cost of living runs about 89% above the national average. Set against a $245,643 median income, cost of living beats 97% of towns.
Is Portola Valley safe?
Portola Valley is safer than 32% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $394 per resident a year.
Compare Portola Valley with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Portola Valley. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Portola 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.
Portola Valley detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Portola Valley: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Portola Valley: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Portola Valley: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Portola Valley: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Portola 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.