Best PlacesSierra Madre, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Sierra Madre, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Sierra Madre ranks 1,383rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on the weather by a wide margin, and air quality ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Sierra Madre
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.
Sierra Madre's strengths and weaknesses
Where Sierra Madre ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 273 pleasant days a year, better than 99% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 99% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 99% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 98% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 98% of towns
Where Sierra Madre ranks low
- Air qualityBetter than only 1% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 8% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 10% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 15% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Sierra Madre
A household needs to earn about $322,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Sierra Madre home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $155,420, 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 Sierra Madre's effective rate of 0.66%, 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 Sierra Madre
Sierra Madre 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 Sierra Madre.
Who works in Sierra Madre, and how
Work in Sierra Madre centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 68%
- Work from home 26%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Sierra Madre
The coast is about 28 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Sierra Madre, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Sierra Madre, month by month
Sierra Madre sees roughly 273 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 68, with lows near 48. The comfortable stretch runs October through May.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 68° | 60° | 48° |
| April | 76° | 68° | 57° |
| July | 89° | 81° | 69° |
| October | 83° | 74° | 60° |
Flying in and out of Sierra Madre
Bob Hope sits about 18 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 3.1 million passengers in 2025, with 54 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Sierra Madre
Schools across Sierra Madre average a B, better than 63% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Royal Oaks Steam Academy (k-8)B− · 44% proficient
- Bradoaks Elementary Science AcademyC · 33% proficient
Top middle schools
- Clifton MiddleB+ · 49% proficient
Top high schools
- Arcadia HighA · 73% proficient
- Pasadena HighB+ · 54% proficient
- Monrovia HighB · 47% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Sierra Madre school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Sierra Madre 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 Sierra Madre against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Sierra Madre
Is Sierra Madre a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Sierra Madre ranks 1,383rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on the weather, big-city access, and an educated workforce, and lowest on air quality and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Sierra Madre expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,257,460. The overall cost of living runs about 55% above the national average. Set against a $155,420 median income, cost of living beats 82% of towns.
Is Sierra Madre safe?
Sierra Madre is safer than 34% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $374 per resident a year.
Compare Sierra Madre with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Sierra Madre. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Sierra Madre 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.
Sierra Madre detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Sierra Madre: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Sierra Madre: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Sierra Madre: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Sierra Madre: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Sierra Madre 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.