Best PlacesTorrance, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Torrance, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Distance to the water drives a lot of the difference between one part and the next. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Torrance ranks 96th of 445 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 5 minutes away. Its strengths are the weather and big-city access. The cost shows up in air quality, tree cover, and taxes.
The best neighborhoods in Torrance
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 Torrance
The parts of Torrance, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the city.
West Torrance
Fewer homes sit empty.
Hollywood Riviera
More adults hold degrees, though prices have run up more.
Walteria
Health care is easier to reach and more residents vote.
North Torrance
More households have young kids, though it is noisier.
South East Torrance
Incomes run lower and local pay stretches less far.
Harbor Gateway & Old Town
Homes cost less.
Torrance shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 14% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Torrance's strengths and weaknesses
Torrance ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. The weather is the standout, in the top 1% of cities. Big-city access and population health follow.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Air quality, tree cover, and taxes hold the score down. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Torrance ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 328 pleasant days a year, better than 99% of cities
- Big-city accessBetter than 96% of cities
- Health outlookBetter than 94% of cities
- BikingBetter than 86% of cities
- TransitBetter than 85% of cities
Where Torrance ranks low
- Air qualityBetter than only 6% of cities
- Tree shadeBetter than only 13% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 15% of cities
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 19% of cities
- State infrastructureBetter than only 21% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Torrance
A household needs to earn about $268,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Torrance home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $117,312, 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 Torrance's effective rate of 0.68%, 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 Torrance
Torrance runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Torrance.
Who works in Torrance, and how
Work in Torrance centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 76%
- Work from home 19%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Torrance
Torrance has more restaurants and bars per resident than 81% of cities and more parkland per resident than 78% of cities. The coast is about 5 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Torrance and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Torrance, month by month
Torrance sees roughly 328 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 79 degrees. January highs sit near 67, with lows near 48. Every month averages in that range.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 67° | 59° | 48° |
| April | 71° | 64° | 53° |
| July | 79° | 73° | 64° |
| October | 78° | 70° | 58° |
Flying in and out of Torrance
The nearest airport, Jack Northrop Field/Hawthorne Municipal, is about 6 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Los Angeles International, about 8 miles away.
The best schools in and around Torrance
Schools across Torrance average a B−, better than 53% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Rancho Vista ElementaryD+ · 25% proficient
- Joseph Arnold ElementaryD+ · 25% proficient
- Howard Wood ElementaryD+ · 25% proficient
Top middle schools
- Miraleste IntermediateD+ · 25% proficient
- Calle Mayor MiddleF · 11% proficient
Top high schools
- Early College Academy-la Trade Tech CollegeB · 50% proficient
- Humanities And Arts (harts) Academy Of Los AngelesC+ · 38% proficient
- Gardena Senior HighC · 31% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Torrance school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Torrance 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 Torrance against the other 444 cities.
Who Torrance suits
Retirees
The weather beats 100% of cities and health care access beats 68%.
Common questions about living in Torrance
Is Torrance a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Torrance ranks 96th of 445 cities. It scores highest on the weather, big-city access, and population health, and lowest on air quality and tree cover. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Torrance expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,042,248. The overall cost of living runs about 48% above the national average. Set against a $117,312 median income, cost of living beats 26% of cities.
Is Torrance safe?
Torrance is safer than 35% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $450 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Torrance?
July highs average about 79 degrees, and January highs near 67 with lows near 48. That works out to about 328 pleasant days a year, more than 100% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Torrance?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are West Torrance, Hollywood Riviera, and Walteria. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Torrance good for families?
Schools beat 53% of cities, crime safety beats 35%, and childcare runs $1,130 a month.
Is Torrance good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 26% of cities, though advertised internet speeds beat only 57% of cities. About 19% of workers already work from home.
Compare Torrance with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Torrance. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Torrance 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.
Torrance detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Torrance: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Torrance: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Torrance: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Torrance: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Torrance 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.