Best PlacesSites, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Sites, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Sites ranks 49,421st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. Civic engagement pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on the weather.
The best neighborhoods in Sites
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.
Sites' strengths and weaknesses
Where Sites ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 134 pleasant days a year, better than 87% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 79% of towns
- QuietBetter than 76% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 70% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 60% of towns
Where Sites ranks low
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 3% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 3% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 4% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 5% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 8% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Sites
A household needs to earn about $121,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Sites home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $49,990, 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 Sites' effective rate of 0.71%, 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 Sites
Sites 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 Sites.
Who works in Sites, and how
Work in Sites centers on agriculture & forestry and health care & social. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 78%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 8%
Life in Sites
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Sites.
What the weather is like in Sites, month by month
Sites sees roughly 134 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 97 degrees. January highs sit near 57, with lows near 40. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 57° | 48° | 40° |
| April | 74° | 62° | 50° |
| July | 97° | 83° | 69° |
| October | 79° | 65° | 52° |
Flying in and out of Sites
Sacramento International sits about 60 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 6.8 million passengers in 2025, with 85 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Sites
Schools across Sites average a D+, better than 20% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Murdock ElementaryD · 20% proficient
- Elk Creek ElementaryD · 19% proficient
Top middle schools
- Willows IntermediateD · 21% proficient
- Indian Valley IntermediateD− · 19% proficient
Top high schools
- Williams Junior/senior HighA · 75% proficient
- Willows HighD+ · 25% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Sites school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Sites 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 Sites against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Sites
Is Sites a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Sites ranks 49,421st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on the weather, big-city access, and quiet, and lowest on civic engagement and biking. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Sites expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $468,978. The overall cost of living runs about 3% above the national average. Set against a $49,990 median income, cost of living beats 8% of towns.
Is Sites safe?
Sites is safer than 4% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $763 per resident a year.
Compare Sites with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Sites. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Sites 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.
Sites detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Sites: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Sites: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Sites: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Sites: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Sites 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.