Best PlacesRedwood Terrace, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Redwood Terrace, 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.
Redwood Terrace ranks 3,255th 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 Redwood Terrace
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.
Redwood Terrace's strengths and weaknesses
Where Redwood Terrace ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 226 pleasant days a year, better than 99% of towns
- Household income$232,863 median, better than 99% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 98% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 97% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 97% of towns
Where Redwood Terrace ranks low
- Cheap childcare$2,233 a month, better than only 1% of towns
- Short commute40.1 minutes each way, better than only 5% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 6% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 9% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Redwood Terrace
A household needs to earn about $277,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Redwood Terrace home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $232,863, 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 Redwood Terrace's effective rate of 0.59%, 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 Redwood Terrace
Redwood Terrace 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 Redwood Terrace.
Who works in Redwood Terrace, and how
Work in Redwood Terrace centers on professional & technical and education. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 60%
- Work from home 29%
- Transit, walk, or bike 12%
Life in Redwood Terrace
The coast is about 14 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Redwood Terrace, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Redwood Terrace, month by month
Redwood Terrace 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 Redwood Terrace
Norman Y Mineta San Jose International sits about 20 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 Redwood Terrace
Schools across Redwood Terrace average an A, better than 88% of towns.
Top middle schools
- Corte MaderaA+ · 77% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Redwood Terrace school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Redwood Terrace 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 Redwood Terrace against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Redwood Terrace
Is Redwood Terrace a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Redwood Terrace ranks 3,255th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on the weather, high incomes, and what local pay buys, and lowest on childcare costs and long commutes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Redwood Terrace expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,089,569. The overall cost of living runs about 55% above the national average. Set against a $232,863 median income, cost of living beats 98% of towns.
Is Redwood Terrace safe?
Redwood Terrace is safer than 27% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $444 per resident a year.
Compare Redwood Terrace with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Redwood Terrace. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Redwood Terrace 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.
Redwood Terrace detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Redwood Terrace: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Redwood Terrace: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Redwood Terrace: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Redwood Terrace: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Redwood Terrace 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.