Best PlacesSunnyvale, TX Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Sunnyvale, 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.
Sunnyvale ranks 1,936th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on what local pay buys by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Sunnyvale
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.
Sunnyvale's strengths and weaknesses
Where Sunnyvale ranks high
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 98% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 98% of towns
- Household income$153,601 median, better than 97% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 95% of towns
- BikingBetter than 93% of towns
Where Sunnyvale ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 9% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 10% of towns
- Short commute33.4 minutes each way, better than only 19% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 19% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 24% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Sunnyvale
A household needs to earn about $153,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Sunnyvale home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $153,601, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
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 Sunnyvale's effective rate of 1.57%, 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 Sunnyvale
Sunnyvale's age mix sits close to the national median, 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 Sunnyvale.
Who works in Sunnyvale, and how
Work in Sunnyvale centers on health care & social and professional & technical. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 81%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Sunnyvale
Sunnyvale has more restaurants and bars per resident than 72% of towns and more parkland per resident than 99% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Sunnyvale and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Sunnyvale, month by month
Sunnyvale sees roughly 141 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 95 degrees. January highs sit near 57, with lows near 37. The comfortable stretch runs March through May, October, and November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 57° | 46° | 37° |
| April | 76° | 65° | 55° |
| July | 95° | 84° | 74° |
| October | 80° | 67° | 57° |
Flying in and out of Sunnyvale
Dallas Love Field sits about 17 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 8.2 million passengers in 2025, with 91 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Sunnyvale
Schools across Sunnyvale average an A−, better than 83% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Johnson ElB+ · 54% proficient
- Sunnyvale IntB · 49% proficient
- Austin ElB− · 42% proficient
Top middle schools
- Sunnyvale MiddleA · 59% proficient
- Warren MiddleB+ · 50% proficient
- Kimbrough MiddleB · 44% proficient
Top high schools
- Sunnyvale H SA · 68% proficient
- Forney H SA− · 60% proficient
- Sachse H SB+ · 53% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Sunnyvale school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Sunnyvale 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 Sunnyvale against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Sunnyvale
Is Sunnyvale a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Sunnyvale ranks 1,936th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on what local pay buys, population health, and high incomes, and lowest on property taxes and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Sunnyvale expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $530,500. The overall cost of living runs about 5% below the national average. Set against a $153,601 median income, cost of living beats 98% of towns.
Is Sunnyvale safe?
Sunnyvale is safer than 26% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $516 per resident a year.
Compare Sunnyvale with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Sunnyvale. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Sunnyvale 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.
Sunnyvale detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Sunnyvale: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Sunnyvale: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Sunnyvale: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Sunnyvale: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Sunnyvale 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.