Best PlacesSanta Barbara, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Santa Barbara, 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.
Santa Barbara ranks 94th of 445 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 3 minutes away. Its strengths are short commutes and the weather. The cost shows up in cell coverage, an overheated housing market, and childcare costs.
The best neighborhoods in Santa Barbara
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 Santa Barbara
The parts of Santa Barbara, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the city.
Northeastern Santa Barbara
Riviera & Lower East
Streets are more walkable, though fewer households have young kids.
Upper State
Local pay stretches further and incomes run higher.
Oak Park-Santa Barbara
More adults hold degrees, though more homes sit empty.
Westside-Santa Barbara & Mesa
Health care is harder to reach and schools score lower.
Waterfront & Eastside Santa Barbara
Biking is better, though it is noisier.
Scores across Santa Barbara run from about the 22nd to the 98th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Santa Barbara's strengths and weaknesses
Santa Barbara ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Short commutes is the standout, in the top 1% of cities. The weather and high incomes follow.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Cell coverage, an overheated housing market, and childcare costs hold the score down. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Santa Barbara ranks high
- Short commute16.7 minutes each way, better than 99% of cities
- Nice weatherabout 243 pleasant days a year, better than 92% of cities
- Household income$130,786 median, better than 92% of cities
- Low property taxBetter than 89% of cities
- BikingBetter than 86% of cities
Where Santa Barbara ranks low
- Cell coverageBetter than only 5% of cities
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 6% of cities
- Cheap childcare$1,613 a month, better than only 10% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 15% of cities
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 18% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Santa Barbara
A household needs to earn about $368,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Santa Barbara home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $130,786, 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 Santa Barbara's effective rate of 0.54%, 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 Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Santa Barbara.
Who works in Santa Barbara, and how
Work in Santa Barbara centers on professional & technical and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 68%
- Work from home 21%
- Transit, walk, or bike 11%
Life in Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara has more restaurants and bars per resident than 87% of cities and more parkland per resident than 94% of cities. The coast is about 3 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Santa Barbara and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Santa Barbara, month by month
Santa Barbara sees roughly 243 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 75 degrees. January highs sit near 67, with lows near 41. The comfortable stretch runs March through November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 67° | 54° | 41° |
| April | 71° | 59° | 48° |
| July | 75° | 65° | 57° |
| October | 77° | 63° | 51° |
Flying in and out of Santa Barbara
The nearest airport, Santa Barbara Municipal, is about 6 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Bob Hope, about 80 miles away.
The best schools in and around Santa Barbara
Schools across Santa Barbara average a C+, better than 46% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Cold Spring ElementaryA+ · 88% proficient
- Montecito UnionA+ · 80% proficient
- Solvang ElementaryB+ · 55% proficient
Top middle schools
- Santa Barbara Junior HighB+ · 50% proficient
- Carpinteria MiddleC · 35% proficient
- Goleta Valley Junior HighD+ · 25% proficient
Top high schools
- Oxnard HighC · 31% proficient
- Carpinteria Senior HighC− · 28% proficient
- Santa Barbara County CommunityD+ · 25% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Santa Barbara school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Santa Barbara 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 Santa Barbara against the other 444 cities.
Who Santa Barbara suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 21% already work from home.
Retirees
The weather beats 92% of cities and health care access beats 78%.
Common questions about living in Santa Barbara
Is Santa Barbara a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Santa Barbara ranks 94th of 445 cities. It scores highest on short commutes, the weather, and high incomes, and lowest on cell coverage and an overheated housing market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Santa Barbara expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,457,102. The overall cost of living runs about 65% above the national average. Set against a $130,786 median income, cost of living beats 29% of cities.
Is Santa Barbara safe?
Santa Barbara is safer than 39% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $447 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Santa Barbara?
July highs average about 75 degrees, and January highs near 67 with lows near 41. That works out to about 243 pleasant days a year, more than 92% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Santa Barbara?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Northeastern Santa Barbara, Riviera & Lower East, and Upper State. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Santa Barbara good for families?
Schools beat 46% of cities, crime safety beats 39%, and childcare runs $1,613 a month.
Is Santa Barbara good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 29% of cities, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 80% of cities. About 21% of workers already work from home.
Compare Santa Barbara with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Santa Barbara. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Santa Barbara 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.
Santa Barbara detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Santa Barbara: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Santa Barbara: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Santa Barbara: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Santa Barbara: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Santa Barbara 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.