Best PlacesSonora, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Sonora, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Sonora ranks 28,900th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. Taxes pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on transit.
The best neighborhoods in Sonora
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.
Sonora's strengths and weaknesses
Where Sonora ranks high
- TransitBetter than 89% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 134 pleasant days a year, better than 87% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 86% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 84% of towns
- BikingBetter than 81% of towns
Where Sonora ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 9% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 14% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 15% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Sonora
A household needs to earn about $114,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Sonora home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $81,128, 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 Sonora'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 Sonora
Sonora 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 Sonora.
Who works in Sonora, and how
Work in Sonora centers on health care & social and public administration. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 82%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Sonora
Sonora has more restaurants and bars per resident than 85% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Sonora and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Sonora, month by month
Sonora sees roughly 134 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 97 degrees. January highs sit near 57, with lows near 36. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 57° | 45° | 36° |
| April | 70° | 56° | 43° |
| July | 97° | 79° | 61° |
| October | 79° | 61° | 48° |
Flying in and out of Sonora
The nearest airport, Stockton Metro, is about 50 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Sacramento International, about 83 miles away.
The best schools in and around Sonora
Schools across Sonora average a C, better than 38% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Sonora ElementaryC+ · 36% proficient
- Twain HarteC · 33% proficient
- Summerville ElementaryC · 31% proficient
Top high schools
- Sonora HighC+ · 40% proficient
- Don Pedro HighD+ · 25% proficient
- Theodore Bird HighD · 19% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Sonora school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Sonora 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 Sonora against the other 50,332 towns.
Who Sonora suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 11% already work from home.
Retirees
The weather beats 87% of towns and health care access beats 58%.
Common questions about living in Sonora
Is Sonora a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Sonora ranks 28,900th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on transit, the weather, and big-city access, and lowest on taxes and summer heat. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Sonora expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $446,352. The overall cost of living runs about 11% above the national average. Set against a $81,128 median income, cost of living beats 36% of towns.
Is Sonora safe?
Sonora is safer than 31% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $510 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Sonora?
July highs average about 97 degrees, and January highs near 57 with lows near 36. That works out to about 134 pleasant days a year, more than 87% of towns.
Is Sonora good for families?
Schools beat 38% of towns, crime safety beats 31%, and childcare runs $1,027 a month.
Compare Sonora with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Sonora. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Sonora 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.
Sonora detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Sonora: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Sonora: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Sonora: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Sonora: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Sonora 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.