Best PlacesRutherford, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Rutherford, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Rutherford ranks 25,177th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on short commutes by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Rutherford
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.
Rutherford's strengths and weaknesses
Where Rutherford ranks high
- Short commute17.3 minutes each way, better than 94% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 155 pleasant days a year, better than 94% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 93% of towns
- TransitBetter than 93% of towns
- BikingBetter than 91% of towns
Where Rutherford ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 4% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,414 a month, better than only 5% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 6% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 7% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Rutherford
A household needs to earn about $418,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Rutherford home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $106,148, 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 Rutherford's effective rate of 0.45%, 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 Rutherford
Rutherford 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 Rutherford.
Who works in Rutherford, and how
Work in Rutherford centers on hospitality & food and agriculture & forestry. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 63%
- Work from home 18%
- Transit, walk, or bike 19%
Life in Rutherford
Rutherford has more restaurants and bars per resident than 98% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Rutherford and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Rutherford, month by month
Rutherford sees roughly 155 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 81 degrees. January highs sit near 58, with lows near 41. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 58° | 48° | 41° |
| April | 67° | 54° | 44° |
| July | 81° | 63° | 52° |
| October | 76° | 59° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Rutherford
The nearest airport, Charles M Schulz/Sonoma County, is about 19 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Sacramento International, about 49 miles away.
The best schools in and around Rutherford
Schools across Rutherford average a B+, better than 69% of towns.
Top high schools
- Saint Helena HighB+ · 55% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Rutherford school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Rutherford 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 Rutherford against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Rutherford
Is Rutherford a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Rutherford ranks 25,177th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on short commutes, the weather, and big-city access, and lowest on an overheated housing market and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Rutherford expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,677,530. The overall cost of living runs about 60% above the national average. Set against a $106,148 median income, cost of living beats 36% of towns.
Is Rutherford safe?
Rutherford is safer than 7% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $669 per resident a year.
Compare Rutherford with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Rutherford. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Rutherford 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.
Rutherford detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Rutherford: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Rutherford: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Rutherford: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Rutherford: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Rutherford 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.