Best PlacesRancho Mirage, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Rancho Mirage, 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.
Rancho Mirage ranks 25,685th 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 Rancho Mirage
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.
Rancho Mirage's strengths and weaknesses
Where Rancho Mirage ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 217 pleasant days a year, better than 99% of towns
- BikingBetter than 98% of towns
- TransitBetter than 95% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 95% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 92% of towns
Where Rancho Mirage ranks low
- Air qualityBetter than only 1% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- School gradeD, better than only 8% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Rancho Mirage
A household needs to earn about $208,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Rancho Mirage home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $113,677, 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 Rancho Mirage's effective rate of 0.91%, 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 Rancho Mirage
Rancho Mirage runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Rancho Mirage.
Who works in Rancho Mirage, and how
Work in Rancho Mirage centers on health care & social 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 63%
- Work from home 33%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Rancho Mirage
Rancho Mirage has more restaurants and bars per resident than 90% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Rancho Mirage and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Rancho Mirage, month by month
Rancho Mirage sees roughly 217 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 112 degrees. January highs sit near 72, with lows near 46. The comfortable stretch runs November through March.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 72° | 59° | 46° |
| April | 91° | 76° | 59° |
| July | 112° | 97° | 81° |
| October | 94° | 79° | 64° |
Flying in and out of Rancho Mirage
The nearest airport, Palm Springs International, is about 6 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Ontario International, about 70 miles away.
The best schools in and around Rancho Mirage
Schools across Rancho Mirage average a D, better than 8% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Cathedral City ElementaryD · 17% proficient
Top middle schools
- La Quinta MiddleD+ · 25% proficient
- Colonel Mitchell Paige MiddleF · 10% proficient
- James Workman MiddleF · 7% proficient
Top high schools
- Palm Desert HighB · 48% proficient
- Cathedral City HighB− · 43% proficient
- Rancho Mirage HighD · 23% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Rancho Mirage school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Rancho Mirage 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 Rancho Mirage against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Rancho Mirage
Is Rancho Mirage a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Rancho Mirage ranks 25,685th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on the weather, biking, and transit, and lowest on air quality and an overheated housing market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Rancho Mirage expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $784,958. The overall cost of living runs about 24% above the national average. Set against a $113,677 median income, cost of living beats 78% of towns.
Is Rancho Mirage safe?
Rancho Mirage is safer than 21% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $458 per resident a year.
Compare Rancho Mirage with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Rancho Mirage. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Rancho Mirage 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.
Rancho Mirage detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Rancho Mirage: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Rancho Mirage: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Rancho Mirage: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Rancho Mirage: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Rancho Mirage 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.