Best PlacesRio del Mar, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Rio del Mar, 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.
Rio del Mar ranks 3,813th 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 Rio del Mar
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.
Rio del Mar's strengths and weaknesses
Where Rio del Mar ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 198 pleasant days a year, better than 99% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 98% of towns
- Household income$158,717 median, better than 98% of towns
- TransitBetter than 98% of towns
- BikingBetter than 98% of towns
Where Rio del Mar ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,701 a month, better than only 1% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 4% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 11% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 18% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Rio del Mar
A household needs to earn about $343,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Rio del Mar home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $158,717, 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 Rio del Mar's effective rate of 0.57%, 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 Rio del Mar
Rio del Mar runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Rio del Mar.
Who works in Rio del Mar, and how
Work in Rio del Mar centers on health care & social and professional & technical. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 69%
- Work from home 28%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Rio del Mar
The coast is about 1 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Rio del Mar, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Rio del Mar, month by month
Rio del Mar sees roughly 198 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 73 degrees. January highs sit near 63, with lows near 40. The comfortable stretch runs April through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 63° | 50° | 40° |
| April | 68° | 55° | 44° |
| July | 73° | 60° | 53° |
| October | 77° | 60° | 48° |
Flying in and out of Rio del Mar
The nearest airport, Monterey Regional, is about 26 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Norman Y Mineta San Jose International, about 28 miles away.
The best schools in and around Rio del Mar
Schools across Rio del Mar average a B, better than 63% of towns.
Top middle schools
- Shoreline MiddleD · 20% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Rio del Mar school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Rio del Mar 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 Rio del Mar against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Rio del Mar
Is Rio del Mar a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Rio del Mar ranks 3,813th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on the weather, an educated workforce, and high incomes, and lowest on childcare costs 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 Rio del Mar expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,355,026. The overall cost of living runs about 47% above the national average. Set against a $158,717 median income, cost of living beats 88% of towns.
Is Rio del Mar safe?
Rio del Mar is safer than 41% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $340 per resident a year.
Compare Rio del Mar with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Rio del Mar. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Rio del Mar 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.
Rio del Mar detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Rio del Mar: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Rio del Mar: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Rio del Mar: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Rio del Mar: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Rio del Mar 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.