Best PlacesTulare County, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in Tulare County, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Tulare County ranks 2,317th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on air quality and civic engagement. It does better on cell coverage, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in Tulare County
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 Tulare County
The parts of Tulare County, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the county.
Farmersville & Exeter
Local pay stretches further, incomes run higher, and health care is easier to reach.
Dinuba
More adults hold degrees and schools score higher.
Tulare
Biking is better, though it is noisier.
Visalia
Prices have run up less and fewer homes sit empty.
Lindsay
Crime runs higher.
Porterville
Woodlake
Fewer households have young kids and advertised internet is slower.
Earlimart, Pixley & Tipton
Homes cost less, though fewer residents vote.
Tulare County shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 2% of the country and others in the top 9%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Tulare County's strengths and weaknesses
Tulare County lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Cell coverage, biking, and few empty homes carry most of that.
The one real hole is air quality, near the bottom of the country. Civic engagement and education levels also cost it ground. That varies block to block rather than evenly, and the map below shows where.
Where Tulare County ranks high
- Cell coverageBetter than 94% of counties
- BikingBetter than 91% of counties
- Low vacancyBetter than 89% of counties
- WalkabilityBetter than 88% of counties
- Big-city accessBetter than 87% of counties
Where Tulare County ranks low
- Air qualityBetter than only 1% of counties
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 1% of counties
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 2% of counties
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 3% of counties
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 6% of counties
What it costs to buy a home in Tulare County
A household needs to earn about $85,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Tulare County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $76,304; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Tulare County's effective rate of 0.69%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Tulare County
Tulare County 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 Tulare County.
Who works in Tulare County, and how
Work in Tulare County centers on agriculture & forestry and health care & social. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 89%
- Work from home 7%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Tulare County
Tulare County has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most counties and less late-night activity than most counties. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Tulare County and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Tulare County growing, and who is moving in?
Tulare County has grown about 6% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Los Angeles, CA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Tulare County go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Tulare County, month by month
Tulare County sees roughly 119 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 100 degrees. January highs sit near 60, with lows near 38. The comfortable stretch runs March through May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 60° | 48° | 38° |
| April | 79° | 63° | 47° |
| July | 100° | 83° | 64° |
| October | 83° | 65° | 49° |
Flying in and out of Tulare County
The nearest airport, Fresno Yosemite International, is about 45 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Bob Hope, about 150 miles away.
The best schools in and around Tulare County
Schools across Tulare County average a C, better than 37% of counties.
Top elementary schools
- Oak Grove ElementaryA+ · 93% proficient
- Linwood ElementaryA+ · 75% proficient
- Denton ElementaryA+ · 75% proficient
Top middle schools
- Ridgeview MiddleB+ · 48% proficient
- Green Acres MiddleB− · 40% proficient
- Sequoia Union ElementaryC− · 31% proficient
Top high schools
- Lindsay Senior HighA+ · 90% proficient
- Golden West HighA · 75% proficient
- Redwood HighA− · 65% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Tulare County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Tulare County 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 Tulare County against the other 3,143 counties.
Who Tulare County suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 7% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Tulare County
Is Tulare County a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Tulare County ranks 2,317th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on cell coverage, biking, and few empty homes, and lowest on air quality and civic engagement. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Tulare County expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $328,576. The overall cost of living runs about 2% above the national average. Set against a $76,304 median income, cost of living beats 26% of counties.
Is Tulare County safe?
Tulare County is safer than 36% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $420 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Tulare County?
July highs average about 100 degrees, and January highs near 60 with lows near 38. That works out to about 119 pleasant days a year, more than 74% of counties.
What are the best neighborhoods in Tulare County?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Farmersville & Exeter, Dinuba, and Tulare. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Tulare County good for families?
Schools beat 37% of counties, crime safety beats 36%, and childcare runs $947 a month.
Is Tulare County good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 26% of counties, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 75% of counties. About 7% of workers already work from home.
Compare Tulare County with other counties
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Tulare County. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Tulare County 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.
Tulare County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Tulare County: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Tulare County: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Tulare County: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Tulare County: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Tulare County 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.