Best PlacesSalinas, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Salinas 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 Agarre16, CC BY-SA 4.0, via wiki
Salinas ranks 197th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 18 minutes away. Its strengths are the weather and clean air. The cost shows up in education levels, civic engagement, and thin health care access.
The best neighborhoods in the Salinas 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 Salinas
The towns and districts of the Salinas 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.
Carmel Valley Village
More adults hold degrees, local pay stretches further, and incomes run higher.
Carmel Valley
More homes sit empty and fewer households have young kids.
Monterey, Seaside & Pacific Grove
Health care is easier to reach and more residents vote.
Downtown Salinas
Disaster risk is higher.
Soledad, Greenfield & King City
Homes cost less, though tree cover is thinner.
Gonzales
It is noisier and schools score lower.
Salinas shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 4% of the country and others in the top 2%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Salinas' strengths and weaknesses
Salinas lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. The weather is the standout, in the top 1% of metro areas. Clean air and walkability follow.
The one real hole is education levels, near the bottom of the country. Civic engagement and thin health care access also cost it ground. The detail is below, and the map is where it turns into a choice of neighborhood rather than just a place.
Where Salinas ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 219 pleasant days a year, better than 99% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than 96% of metro areas
- WalkabilityBetter than 96% of metro areas
- TransitBetter than 94% of metro areas
- BikingBetter than 92% of metro areas
Where Salinas ranks low
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 4% of metro areas
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 4% of metro areas
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 5% of metro areas
- Local economyBetter than only 5% of metro areas
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Salinas
A household needs to earn about $207,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Salinas home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $102,322, 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 Salinas' effective rate of 0.64%, 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 Salinas
Salinas 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 Salinas.
Who works in Salinas, and how
Work in Salinas centers on agriculture & forestry and health care & social. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Salinas
Salinas has more parkland per resident than 68% of metro areas and less late-night activity than most metro areas. The coast is about 18 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Salinas and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Salinas growing, and who is moving in?
Salinas has grown about 2% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from San Jose, CA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Salinas go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Salinas, month by month
Salinas sees roughly 219 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 72 degrees. January highs sit near 64, with lows near 42. The comfortable stretch runs April through November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 64° | 52° | 42° |
| April | 69° | 56° | 47° |
| July | 72° | 62° | 55° |
| October | 78° | 61° | 50° |
Flying in and out of Salinas
The nearest airport, Monterey Regional, is about 13 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Norman Y Mineta San Jose International, about 49 miles away.
The best schools in and around Salinas
Schools across Salinas average a C+, better than 52% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Spreckels ElementaryB− · 44% proficient
- Bitterwater-tully ElementaryD+ · 25% proficient
- La Gloria ElementaryD · 20% proficient
Top middle schools
- Buena Vista MiddleA− · 54% proficient
- Seaside MiddleD+ · 25% proficient
Top high schools
- King City HighC · 30% proficient
- Gonzales HighC− · 30% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Salinas school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Salinas 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 Salinas against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Salinas suits
Common questions about living in Salinas
Is Salinas a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Salinas ranks 197th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on the weather, clean air, and walkability, and lowest on education levels and civic engagement. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Salinas expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $808,635. The overall cost of living runs about 30% above the national average. Set against a $102,322 median income, cost of living beats 13% of metro areas.
Is Salinas safe?
Salinas is safer than 34% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $414 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Salinas?
July highs average about 72 degrees, and January highs near 64 with lows near 42. That works out to about 219 pleasant days a year, more than 99% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Salinas?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Carmel Valley Village, Carmel Valley, and Monterey, Seaside & Pacific Grove. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Salinas good for families?
Schools beat 52% of metro areas, crime safety beats 34%, and childcare runs $1,371 a month.
Is Salinas good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 13% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 41% of metro areas. About 10% of workers already work from home.
Compare Salinas with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Salinas. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Salinas 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.
Salinas detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Salinas: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Salinas: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Salinas: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Salinas: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Salinas 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.