Best PlacesSutter Creek, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Sutter Creek, 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.
Sutter Creek ranks 20,776th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on transit by a wide margin, and taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Sutter Creek
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.
Sutter Creek's strengths and weaknesses
Where Sutter Creek ranks high
- TransitBetter than 91% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 90% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 138 pleasant days a year, better than 88% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 86% of towns
- BikingBetter than 85% of towns
Where Sutter Creek ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 11% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 19% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 21% of towns
- School gradeC−, better than only 22% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Sutter Creek
A household needs to earn about $131,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Sutter Creek home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $88,482, 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 Sutter Creek'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 Sutter Creek
Sutter Creek 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 Sutter Creek.
Who works in Sutter Creek, and how
Work in Sutter Creek centers on retail trade and wholesale trade. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 75%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 10%
Life in Sutter Creek
Sutter Creek has more restaurants and bars per resident than 93% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Sutter Creek and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Sutter Creek, month by month
Sutter Creek sees roughly 138 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 97 degrees. January highs sit near 58, with lows near 37. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 58° | 46° | 37° |
| April | 71° | 57° | 43° |
| July | 97° | 80° | 61° |
| October | 79° | 63° | 49° |
Flying in and out of Sutter Creek
The nearest airport, Stockton Metro, is about 43 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Sacramento International, about 48 miles away.
The best schools in and around Sutter Creek
Schools across Sutter Creek average a C−, better than 22% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Jackson ElementaryC− · 30% proficient
- Sutter Creek ElementaryC− · 28% proficient
- Ione ElementaryD+ · 23% proficient
Top middle schools
- Ione Junior HighD · 23% proficient
- Jackson Junior HighD · 22% proficient
Top high schools
- Argonaut HighC+ · 35% proficient
- Amador HighC · 32% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Sutter Creek school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Sutter Creek 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 Sutter Creek against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Sutter Creek
Is Sutter Creek a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Sutter Creek ranks 20,776th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on transit, big-city access, and the weather, 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 Sutter Creek expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $509,508. The overall cost of living runs about 9% above the national average. Set against a $88,482 median income, cost of living beats 53% of towns.
Is Sutter Creek safe?
Sutter Creek is safer than 46% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $358 per resident a year.
Compare Sutter Creek with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Sutter Creek. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Sutter Creek 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.
Sutter Creek detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Sutter Creek: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Sutter Creek: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Sutter Creek: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Sutter Creek: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Sutter Creek 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.