Best PlacesStockton, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Stockton metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Quintin Soloviev, CC BY 4.0, via commons
Stockton ranks 345th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on long commutes and crime. It does better on big-city access, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Stockton 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 Stockton
The towns and districts of the Stockton 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.
Tracy & Mountain House
Incomes run higher, crime runs lower, and local pay stretches further.
Manteca
More residents vote, though transit reaches fewer jobs.
Lathrop
More households have young kids, though biking is worse.
Acampo, Lockeford & Linden
Commutes are shorter and it is quieter.
Country Club
Scores close to Acampo, Lockeford & Linden, except that schools score lower here.
Lodi
Scores close to Country Club, except that fewer adults hold degrees here.
Downtown Stockton
Homes cost less and streets are more walkable.
Garden Acres & August
Health care is harder to reach and health outcomes score lower.
Stockton shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 1% of the country and others in the top 5%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Stockton's strengths and weaknesses
Stockton ranks near the bottom because several of the basics fall short at once. Big-city access, cell coverage, and walkability carry most of that.
The weak spots are broad rather than narrow: long commutes, crime, and civic engagement all drag on the score. Those are area averages, and the map below shows which parts run well above them.
Where Stockton ranks high
- Big-city accessBetter than 94% of metro areas
- Cell coverageBetter than 90% of metro areas
- WalkabilityBetter than 88% of metro areas
- Household income$100,699 median, better than 87% of metro areas
- BikingBetter than 85% of metro areas
Where Stockton ranks low
- Short commute34.1 minutes each way, better than only 1% of metro areas
- Crime safetyBetter than only 2% of metro areas
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 4% of metro areas
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 4% of metro areas
- QuietBetter than only 5% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Stockton
A household needs to earn about $140,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Stockton home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $100,699, 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 Stockton's effective rate of 0.75%, 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 Stockton
Stockton runs younger than the country, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Stockton.
Who works in Stockton, and how
Work in Stockton centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 85%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Stockton
Stockton has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas and less parkland per resident than most metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Stockton and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Stockton growing, and who is moving in?
Stockton has grown about 15% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from San Francisco, CA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Stockton go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Stockton, month by month
Stockton sees roughly 137 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 98 degrees. January highs sit near 61, with lows near 39. The comfortable stretch runs March through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 61° | 49° | 39° |
| April | 77° | 61° | 46° |
| July | 98° | 78° | 60° |
| October | 83° | 65° | 49° |
Flying in and out of Stockton
The nearest airport, Stockton Metro, is about 7 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Sacramento International, about 52 miles away.
The best schools in and around Stockton
Schools across Stockton average a C−, better than 15% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Park View ElementaryA+ · 73% proficient
- Hansen ElementaryA− · 60% proficient
- Weston ElementaryA− · 58% proficient
Top middle schools
- ElkhornA+ · 92% proficient
- JeffersonA− · 56% proficient
- Discovery CharterC+ · 36% proficient
Top high schools
- Stockton Early College AcademyA+ · 80% proficient
- Middle College HighA · 76% proficient
- Livermore HighA · 67% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Stockton school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Stockton 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 Stockton against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Stockton suits
Common questions about living in Stockton
Is Stockton a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Stockton ranks 345th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on big-city access, cell coverage, and walkability, and lowest on long commutes and crime. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Stockton expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $537,480. The overall cost of living runs about 15% above the national average. Set against a $100,699 median income, cost of living beats 34% of metro areas.
Is Stockton safe?
Stockton is safer than 2% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $639 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Stockton?
July highs average about 98 degrees, and January highs near 61 with lows near 39. That works out to about 137 pleasant days a year, more than 81% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Stockton?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Tracy & Mountain House, Manteca, and Lathrop. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Stockton good for families?
Schools beat 15% of metro areas, crime safety beats 2%, and childcare runs $1,299 a month.
Is Stockton good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 34% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 54% of metro areas. About 11% of workers already work from home.
Compare Stockton with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Stockton. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Stockton 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.
Stockton detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Stockton: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Stockton: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Stockton: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Stockton: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Stockton 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.