Best PlacesSanta Cruz, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Santa Cruz 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 Robert Campbell, CC BY-SA 3.0, via wiki
Santa Cruz ranks 117th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 6 minutes away. Its strengths are biking and transit. The cost shows up in childcare costs, a weak job market, and cell coverage.
The best neighborhoods in the Santa Cruz 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 Santa Cruz
The towns and districts of the Santa Cruz 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.
Scotts Valley
Tree cover is thicker, local pay stretches further, and incomes run higher.
Downtown Santa Cruz
Streets are more walkable, though fewer households have young kids.
Boulder Creek, Felton & Ben Lomond
It is quieter and more adults hold degrees.
Aptos
Health care is easier to reach, though biking is worse.
Watsonville
Fewer residents vote and disaster risk is higher.
Santa Cruz shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 11% of the country and others in the top 4%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Santa Cruz's strengths and weaknesses
Santa Cruz lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Biking is the standout, in the top 2% of metro areas. Transit and clean air follow.
The one real hole is childcare costs, near the bottom of the country. A weak job market and cell coverage also cost it ground. Cost swings more from one part of Santa Cruz to another than it does between Santa Cruz and its neighbors, which the map below shows.
Where Santa Cruz ranks high
- BikingBetter than 98% of metro areas
- TransitBetter than 98% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than 98% of metro areas
- Nice weatherabout 195 pleasant days a year, better than 97% of metro areas
- WalkabilityBetter than 97% of metro areas
Where Santa Cruz ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,701 a month, better than only 2% of metro areas
- Local economyBetter than only 5% of metro areas
- Cell coverageBetter than only 7% of metro areas
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 10% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Santa Cruz
A household needs to earn about $264,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Santa Cruz home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $116,178, 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 Cruz's effective rate of 0.61%, 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 Cruz
Santa Cruz's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Santa Cruz.
Who works in Santa Cruz, and how
Work in Santa Cruz centers on education and health care & social. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 71%
- Work from home 19%
- Transit, walk, or bike 10%
Life in Santa Cruz
The coast is about 6 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Santa Cruz, which the map shows.
Is Santa Cruz growing, and who is moving in?
Santa Cruz has lost about 3% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from San Jose, CA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Santa Cruz go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Santa Cruz, month by month
Santa Cruz sees roughly 195 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 73 degrees. January highs sit near 63, with lows near 40. The comfortable stretch runs April through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 63° | 50° | 40° |
| April | 68° | 55° | 44° |
| July | 73° | 60° | 53° |
| October | 77° | 60° | 48° |
Flying in and out of Santa Cruz
Norman Y Mineta San Jose International sits about 27 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 5.3 million passengers in 2025, with 67 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Santa Cruz
Schools across Santa Cruz average a B−, better than 67% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Brook Knoll ElementaryA− · 61% proficient
- Vine Hill ElementaryA− · 58% proficient
- Tierra Pacifica CharterB · 45% proficient
Top middle schools
- Scotts Valley MiddleA · 62% proficient
- Shoreline MiddleD · 20% proficient
Top high schools
- Santa Cruz HighA · 75% proficient
- Soquel HighA− · 65% proficient
- Scotts Valley HighB+ · 58% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Santa Cruz school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Santa Cruz 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 Cruz against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Santa Cruz suits
Retirees
The weather beats 97% of metro areas and it is quieter than 68%.
Common questions about living in Santa Cruz
Is Santa Cruz a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Santa Cruz ranks 117th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on biking, transit, and clean air, and lowest on childcare costs and a weak job market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Santa Cruz expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,036,848. The overall cost of living runs about 39% above the national average. Set against a $116,178 median income, cost of living beats 33% of metro areas.
Is Santa Cruz safe?
Santa Cruz is safer than 28% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $432 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Santa Cruz?
July highs average about 73 degrees, and January highs near 63 with lows near 40. That works out to about 195 pleasant days a year, more than 97% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Santa Cruz?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Scotts Valley, Downtown Santa Cruz, and Boulder Creek, Felton & Ben Lomond. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Santa Cruz good for families?
Schools beat 67% of metro areas, crime safety beats 28%, and childcare runs $1,701 a month.
Is Santa Cruz good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 33% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 54% of metro areas. About 19% of workers already work from home.
Compare Santa Cruz with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Santa Cruz. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Santa Cruz 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 Cruz detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Santa Cruz: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Santa Cruz: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Santa Cruz: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Santa Cruz: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Santa Cruz 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.