Best PlacesTopanga, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Topanga, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Topanga ranks 12,115th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on the weather by a wide margin, and disaster risk is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Topanga
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.
Topanga's strengths and weaknesses
Where Topanga ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 243 pleasant days a year, better than 99% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 99% of towns
- Household income$156,854 median, better than 98% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 97% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 97% of towns
Where Topanga ranks low
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 3% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 4% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 5% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 5% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Topanga
A household needs to earn about $430,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Topanga home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $156,854, 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 Topanga's effective rate of 0.77%, 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 Topanga
Topanga runs older 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 Topanga.
Who works in Topanga, and how
Work in Topanga centers on professional & technical and health care & social. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 52%
- Work from home 41%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Topanga
The coast is about 8 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Topanga, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Topanga, month by month
Topanga sees roughly 243 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 95 degrees. January highs sit near 70, with lows near 46. The comfortable stretch runs October through June.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 70° | 57° | 46° |
| April | 79° | 64° | 52° |
| July | 95° | 78° | 65° |
| October | 88° | 71° | 58° |
Flying in and out of Topanga
Bob Hope sits about 15 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 3.1 million passengers in 2025, with 54 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Topanga
Schools across Topanga average an A−, better than 78% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Chaparral ElementaryA+ · 75% proficient
Top middle schools
- Alice C. Stelle MiddleA− · 54% proficient
- Lincoln MiddleD+ · 25% proficient
Top high schools
- Early College Academy-la Trade Tech CollegeB · 50% proficient
- Calabasas HighB− · 45% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Topanga school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Topanga 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 Topanga against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Topanga
Is Topanga a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Topanga ranks 12,115th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on the weather, big-city access, and high incomes, and lowest on disaster risk and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Topanga expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,650,420. The overall cost of living runs about 73% above the national average. Set against a $156,854 median income, cost of living beats 68% of towns.
Is Topanga safe?
Topanga is safer than 28% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $414 per resident a year.
Compare Topanga with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Topanga. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Topanga 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.
Topanga detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Topanga: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Topanga: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Topanga: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Topanga: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Topanga 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.