Best PlacesTracy, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Tracy, 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.
Tracy ranks 1,181st of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. Long commutes pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on biking.
The best neighborhoods in Tracy
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.
Tracy's strengths and weaknesses
Where Tracy ranks high
- BikingBetter than 89% of cities
- Air qualityBetter than 87% of cities
- Household income$129,061 median, better than 81% of cities
- Health outlookBetter than 80% of cities
- Cell coverageBetter than 78% of cities
Where Tracy ranks low
- Short commute42.2 minutes each way, better than only 1% of cities
- Tree shadeBetter than only 8% of cities
- Heat safetyBetter than only 9% of cities
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 12% of cities
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 13% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Tracy
A household needs to earn about $183,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Tracy home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $129,061, 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 Tracy's effective rate of 0.80%, 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 Tracy
Tracy 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 Tracy.
Who works in Tracy, and how
Work in Tracy centers on retail trade and manufacturing. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 81%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Tracy
Tracy has more parkland per resident than 85% of cities. That concentrates in some parts of Tracy and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Tracy, month by month
Tracy sees roughly 135 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 Tracy
The nearest airport, Stockton Metro, is about 16 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Norman Y Mineta San Jose International, about 37 miles away.
The best schools in and around Tracy
Schools across Tracy average a C, better than 24% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Altamont Creek ElementaryA · 68% proficient
- Hansen ElementaryA− · 60% proficient
- Julius Cordes ElementaryB+ · 55% proficient
Top middle schools
- William Mendenhall MiddleA · 63% proficient
- JeffersonA− · 56% proficient
- Discovery CharterC+ · 36% proficient
Top high schools
- Livermore HighA · 67% proficient
- Mountain House HighA− · 60% proficient
- John C. Kimball HighB · 46% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Tracy school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Tracy 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 Tracy against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Tracy suits
Families
Schools land around the 24th percentile and crime safety beats 68%.
Common questions about living in Tracy
Is Tracy a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Tracy ranks 1,181st of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on biking, clean air, and high incomes, and lowest on long commutes and tree cover. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Tracy expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $700,105. The overall cost of living runs about 20% above the national average. Set against a $129,061 median income, cost of living beats 61% of cities.
Is Tracy safe?
Yes, Tracy is safer than 68% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $297 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Tracy?
July highs average about 98 degrees, and January highs near 61 with lows near 39. That works out to about 135 pleasant days a year, more than 78% of cities.
Is Tracy good for families?
Schools beat 24% of cities, crime safety beats 68%, and childcare runs $1,303 a month.
Compare Tracy with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Tracy. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Tracy 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.
Tracy detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Tracy: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Tracy: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Tracy: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Tracy: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Tracy 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.