Best PlacesRancho Santa Margarita, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Rancho Santa Margarita, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Rancho Santa Margarita ranks 263rd of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on the weather by a wide margin, and air quality ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Rancho Santa Margarita
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 Santa Margarita's strengths and weaknesses
Where Rancho Santa Margarita ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 302 pleasant days a year, better than 98% of cities
- Household income$162,465 median, better than 94% of cities
- Health outlookBetter than 91% of cities
- Big-city accessBetter than 90% of cities
- Low vacancyBetter than 87% of cities
Where Rancho Santa Margarita ranks low
- Air qualityBetter than only 9% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 14% of cities
- Cheap childcare$1,494 a month, better than only 16% of cities
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 17% of cities
- QuietBetter than only 20% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Rancho Santa Margarita
A household needs to earn about $236,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Rancho Santa Margarita home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $162,465, 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 Santa Margarita'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 Rancho Santa Margarita
Rancho Santa Margarita's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Rancho Santa Margarita.
Who works in Rancho Santa Margarita, and how
Work in Rancho Santa Margarita centers on professional & technical and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 75%
- Work from home 22%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Rancho Santa Margarita
Rancho Santa Margarita has more restaurants and bars per resident than 67% of cities and more parkland per resident than 79% of cities. The coast is about 16 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Rancho Santa Margarita and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Rancho Santa Margarita, month by month
Rancho Santa Margarita sees roughly 302 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 81 degrees. January highs sit near 69, with lows near 48. Every month averages in that range.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 69° | 58° | 48° |
| April | 73° | 63° | 56° |
| July | 81° | 72° | 66° |
| October | 81° | 69° | 61° |
Flying in and out of Rancho Santa Margarita
John Wayne/Orange County sits about 15 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 5.5 million passengers in 2025, with 80 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Rancho Santa Margarita
Schools across Rancho Santa Margarita average a B, better than 67% of cities.
Top middle schools
- Newhart MiddleD+ · 25% proficient
Top high schools
- Trabuco Hills HighA · 74% proficient
- Tesoro HighA · 70% proficient
- El Toro HighA− · 65% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Rancho Santa Margarita school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Rancho Santa Margarita 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 Santa Margarita against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Rancho Santa Margarita suits
Retirees
The weather beats 98% of cities and health care access beats 62%.
Common questions about living in Rancho Santa Margarita
Is Rancho Santa Margarita a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Rancho Santa Margarita ranks 263rd of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on the weather, high incomes, and population health, 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 Rancho Santa Margarita expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $915,806. The overall cost of living runs about 46% above the national average. Set against a $162,465 median income, cost of living beats 69% of cities.
Is Rancho Santa Margarita safe?
Rancho Santa Margarita is safer than 52% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $321 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Rancho Santa Margarita?
July highs average about 81 degrees, and January highs near 69 with lows near 48. That works out to about 302 pleasant days a year, more than 98% of cities.
Is Rancho Santa Margarita good for families?
Schools beat 67% of cities, crime safety beats 52%, and childcare runs $1,494 a month.
Compare Rancho Santa Margarita with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Rancho Santa Margarita. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Rancho Santa Margarita 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 Santa Margarita detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Rancho Santa Margarita: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Rancho Santa Margarita: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Rancho Santa Margarita: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Rancho Santa Margarita: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Rancho Santa Margarita 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.