Best PlacesSanta Rosa, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Santa Rosa 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.
Santa Rosa ranks 114th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 34 minutes away. Its strengths are clean air and biking. The cost shows up in taxes, disaster risk, and state finances.
The best neighborhoods in the Santa Rosa 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 Rosa
The towns and districts of the Santa Rosa 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.
Petaluma & Sonoma
More adults hold degrees.
Sebastopol
It is quieter, though biking is worse.
Rohnert Park & Cotati
Fewer homes sit empty, though tree cover is thinner.
Windsor, Healdsburg & Cloverdale
Streets are more car-dependent and crime runs higher.
Downtown Santa Rosa
Health care is harder to reach and fewer residents vote.
Santa Rosa shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 5% of the country and others in the top 4%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Santa Rosa's strengths and weaknesses
Santa Rosa lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Clean air is the standout, in the top 2% of metro areas. Biking and high incomes follow.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Taxes, disaster risk, and state finances hold the score down. Cost swings more from one part of Santa Rosa to another than it does between Santa Rosa and its neighbors, which the map below shows.
Where Santa Rosa ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 98% of metro areas
- BikingBetter than 97% of metro areas
- Household income$112,834 median, better than 95% of metro areas
- TransitBetter than 92% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than 91% of metro areas
Where Santa Rosa ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 12% of metro areas
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 17% of metro areas
- State infrastructureBetter than only 22% of metro areas
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 26% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Santa Rosa
A household needs to earn about $213,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Santa Rosa home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $112,834, 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 Rosa's effective rate of 0.68%, 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 Rosa
Santa Rosa runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Santa Rosa.
Who works in Santa Rosa, and how
Work in Santa Rosa centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 76%
- Work from home 17%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Santa Rosa
Santa Rosa has more restaurants and bars per resident than 80% of metro areas and less late-night activity than most metro areas. The coast is about 34 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Santa Rosa and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Santa Rosa growing, and who is moving in?
Santa Rosa has lost about 3% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from San Francisco, CA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Santa Rosa go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Santa Rosa, month by month
Santa Rosa sees roughly 144 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 61, with lows near 38. The comfortable stretch runs April through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 61° | 48° | 38° |
| April | 72° | 56° | 42° |
| July | 86° | 65° | 51° |
| October | 81° | 60° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Santa Rosa
The nearest airport, Charles M Schulz/Sonoma County, is about 7 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is San Francisco Bay Oakland International, about 57 miles away.
The best schools in and around Santa Rosa
Schools across Santa Rosa average a C+, better than 46% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Mark West CharterB · 50% proficient
- Village CharterB− · 43% proficient
- San Miguel ElementaryB− · 43% proficient
Top middle schools
- Technology MiddleD+ · 25% proficient
Top high schools
- Analy HighB+ · 55% proficient
- Rancho Cotate HighC · 33% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Santa Rosa school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Santa Rosa 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 Rosa against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Santa Rosa suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 17% already work from home.
Retirees
The weather beats 85% of metro areas, health care access beats 61%, and it is quieter than 64%.
Common questions about living in Santa Rosa
Is Santa Rosa a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Santa Rosa ranks 114th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on clean air, biking, and high incomes, and lowest on taxes and disaster risk. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Santa Rosa expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $829,339. The overall cost of living runs about 30% above the national average. Set against a $112,834 median income, cost of living beats 47% of metro areas.
Is Santa Rosa safe?
Santa Rosa is safer than 52% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $356 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Santa Rosa?
July highs average about 86 degrees, and January highs near 61 with lows near 38. That works out to about 144 pleasant days a year, more than 85% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Santa Rosa?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Petaluma & Sonoma, Sebastopol, and Rohnert Park & Cotati. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Santa Rosa good for families?
Schools beat 46% of metro areas, crime safety beats 52%, and childcare runs $1,041 a month.
Is Santa Rosa good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 47% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 75% of metro areas. About 17% of workers already work from home.
Compare Santa Rosa with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Santa Rosa. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Santa Rosa 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 Rosa detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Santa Rosa: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Santa Rosa: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Santa Rosa: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Santa Rosa: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Santa Rosa 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.