Best PlacesRotavele, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Rotavele, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Rotavele ranks 27,879th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. Civic engagement pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on the weather.
The best neighborhoods in Rotavele
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.
Rotavele's strengths and weaknesses
Where Rotavele ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 141 pleasant days a year, better than 90% of towns
- Household income$103,865 median, better than 87% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 86% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 70% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 65% of towns
Where Rotavele ranks low
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 2% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 8% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 13% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 13% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Rotavele
A household needs to earn about $121,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Rotavele home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $103,865, 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 Rotavele's effective rate of 0.72%, 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 Rotavele
Rotavele 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 Rotavele.
Who works in Rotavele, and how
Work in Rotavele centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 86%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Rotavele
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Rotavele.
What the weather is like in Rotavele, month by month
Rotavele sees roughly 141 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 97 degrees. January highs sit near 57, with lows near 40. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 57° | 48° | 40° |
| April | 74° | 62° | 50° |
| July | 97° | 83° | 69° |
| October | 79° | 65° | 52° |
Flying in and out of Rotavele
The nearest airport, Redding Regional, is about 56 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Sacramento International, about 75 miles away.
The best schools in and around Rotavele
Schools across Rotavele average a C, better than 31% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Shasta ElementaryD+ · 25% proficient
- Emma Wilson ElementaryD+ · 25% proficient
- Hamilton ElementaryD− · 13% proficient
Top middle schools
- Bidwell Junior HighD+ · 25% proficient
Top high schools
- Chico HighA− · 59% proficient
- Pleasant Valley HighB+ · 53% proficient
- Hamilton HighC− · 28% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Rotavele school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Rotavele 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 Rotavele against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Rotavele
Is Rotavele a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Rotavele ranks 27,879th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on the weather, high incomes, and population health, and lowest on civic engagement and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Rotavele expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $469,003. The overall cost of living runs about 8% above the national average. Set against a $103,865 median income, cost of living beats 64% of towns.
Is Rotavele safe?
Rotavele is safer than 32% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $378 per resident a year.
Compare Rotavele with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Rotavele. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Rotavele 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.
Rotavele detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Rotavele: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Rotavele: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Rotavele: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Rotavele: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Rotavele 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.