Best PlacesRiverside, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Riverside metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Distance to the water drives a lot of the difference between one part and the next. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Spatms, CC BY-SA 4.0, via wiki
Riverside ranks 307th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 52 minutes away. Its strengths are the weather and big-city access. The cost shows up in air quality, long commutes, and civic engagement.
The best neighborhoods in the Riverside metro
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.
The best areas in Riverside
The towns and districts of the Riverside metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Murrieta, Temecula & Menifee
Local pay stretches further, crime runs lower, and heat risk is lower.
Corona
Incomes run higher and fewer homes sit empty.
Downtown Riverside
Big-city amenities are closer, though it is noisier.
Victorville & Adelanto
More households have young kids, though commutes are longer.
Moreno Valley, San Bernardino & Redlands
Biking is better, though disaster risk is higher.
Indio, Cathedral City & Palm Desert
Homes cost less, though schools score lower.
Apple Valley, Hesperia & Barstow
Health outcomes score lower.
Desert Hot Springs, Banning & Yucca Valley
Scores close to Apple Valley, Hesperia & Barstow, except that health care is easier to reach here.
Twentynine Palms, Big Bear City & Fort Irwin
Advertised internet is slower and fewer residents vote.
Riverside shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 1% of the country and others in the top 2%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Riverside's strengths and weaknesses
Riverside ranks near the bottom because several of the basics fall short at once. The weather is the standout, in the top 2% of metro areas. Big-city access and cell coverage follow.
The weak spots are broad rather than narrow: air quality, long commutes, and civic engagement all drag on the score. Those are area averages, and the map below shows which parts run well above them.
Where Riverside ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 210 pleasant days a year, better than 98% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than 98% of metro areas
- Cell coverageBetter than 90% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than 90% of metro areas
- BikingBetter than 85% of metro areas
Where Riverside ranks low
- Air qualityBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- Short commute33.2 minutes each way, better than only 1% of metro areas
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 4% of metro areas
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 7% of metro areas
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 8% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Riverside
A household needs to earn about $141,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Riverside home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $97,948, 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 Riverside's effective rate of 0.77%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 10 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Riverside
Riverside runs younger than the country, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Riverside.
Who works in Riverside, and how
Work in Riverside centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Riverside
Riverside has more restaurants and bars per resident than 76% of metro areas and less parkland per resident than most metro areas. The coast is about 52 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Riverside and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Riverside growing, and who is moving in?
Riverside has grown about 7% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Los Angeles, CA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Riverside go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Riverside, month by month
Riverside sees roughly 210 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 97 degrees. January highs sit near 69, with lows near 43. The comfortable stretch runs September through June.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 69° | 56° | 43° |
| April | 80° | 63° | 50° |
| July | 97° | 78° | 64° |
| October | 87° | 70° | 56° |
Flying in and out of Riverside
Ontario International sits about 14 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 3.5 million passengers in 2025, with 62 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Riverside
Schools across Riverside average a C, better than 34% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Landers ElementaryA+ · 75% proficient
- Alberhill ElementaryA+ · 75% proficient
- FallsvaleA · 65% proficient
Top middle schools
- Webb Del E MsA− · 53% proficient
- Canyon Lake MiddleB+ · 50% proficient
- Desert Ridge AcademyB+ · 50% proficient
Top high schools
- Henry J. Kaiser HighA+ · 95% proficient
- Valley View HighA+ · 90% proficient
- Claremont HighA · 78% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Riverside school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Riverside 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 Riverside against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Riverside suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 12% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Riverside
Is Riverside a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Riverside ranks 307th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on the weather, big-city access, and cell coverage, and lowest on air quality and long commutes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Riverside expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $540,156. The overall cost of living runs about 16% above the national average. Set against a $97,948 median income, cost of living beats 26% of metro areas.
Is Riverside safe?
Riverside is safer than 34% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $404 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Riverside?
July highs average about 97 degrees, and January highs near 69 with lows near 43. That works out to about 210 pleasant days a year, more than 98% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Riverside?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Murrieta, Temecula & Menifee, Corona, and Downtown Riverside. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Riverside good for families?
Schools beat 34% of metro areas, crime safety beats 34%, and childcare runs $1,296 a month.
Is Riverside good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 26% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 90% of metro areas. About 12% of workers already work from home.
Compare Riverside with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Riverside. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Riverside 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.
Riverside detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Riverside: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Riverside: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Riverside: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Riverside: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Riverside 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.