Best PlacesRough And Ready, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Rough And Ready, 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.
Rough And Ready ranks 18,134th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on civic engagement by a wide margin, and air quality ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Rough And Ready
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.
Rough And Ready's strengths and weaknesses
Where Rough And Ready ranks high
- Voter turnoutBetter than 95% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 158 pleasant days a year, better than 94% of towns
- TransitBetter than 92% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 84% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 84% of towns
Where Rough And Ready ranks low
- Air qualityBetter than only 4% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,174 a month, better than only 14% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 19% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 22% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Rough And Ready
A household needs to earn about $155,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Rough And Ready home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $89,999, 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 Rough And Ready'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 Rough And Ready
Rough And Ready 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 Rough And Ready.
Who works in Rough And Ready, and how
Work in Rough And Ready centers on hospitality & food and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 76%
- Work from home 21%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Rough And Ready
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Rough And Ready.
What the weather is like in Rough And Ready, month by month
Rough And Ready sees roughly 158 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 52, with lows near 39. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 52° | 45° | 39° |
| April | 64° | 54° | 47° |
| July | 90° | 80° | 71° |
| October | 72° | 63° | 56° |
Flying in and out of Rough And Ready
Sacramento International sits about 44 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 6.8 million passengers in 2025, with 85 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Rough And Ready
Schools across Rough And Ready average a C, better than 35% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Nevada City School Of The ArtsB+ · 53% proficient
- Bell Hill AcademyB · 48% proficient
- Williams Ranch ElementaryC · 34% proficient
Top middle schools
- Lyman Gilmore MiddleD+ · 24% proficient
Top high schools
- Nevada Union HighC · 34% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Rough And Ready school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Rough And Ready 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 Rough And Ready against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Rough And Ready
Is Rough And Ready a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Rough And Ready ranks 18,134th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on civic engagement, the weather, and transit, 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 Rough And Ready expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $598,943. The overall cost of living runs about 12% above the national average. Set against a $89,999 median income, cost of living beats 50% of towns.
Is Rough And Ready safe?
Rough And Ready is safer than 48% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $317 per resident a year.
Compare Rough And Ready with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Rough And Ready. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Rough And Ready 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.
Rough And Ready detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Rough And Ready: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Rough And Ready: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Rough And Ready: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Rough And Ready: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Rough And Ready 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.