Best PlacesVacaville, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Vacaville, 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.
Vacaville ranks 179th of 445 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It does not top any single list, but it lands above the national middle on clean air and high incomes. The weaker spots are cell coverage, taxes, and summer heat.
The best neighborhoods in Vacaville
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 Vacaville
The parts of Vacaville, 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.
Northwestern Vacaville
It is quieter, health care is easier to reach, and more adults hold degrees.
Northeastern Vacaville
More households have young kids, though streets are more car-dependent.
Leisure Town
Local pay stretches less far and incomes run lower.
Vacaville shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 13% of the country and others in the top 6%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Vacaville's strengths and weaknesses
Vacaville lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Clean air, high incomes, and a stable housing market carry most of that.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Cell coverage, taxes, and summer heat hold the score down. The detail is below, and the map is where it turns into a choice of neighborhood rather than just a place.
Where Vacaville ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 92% of cities
- Household income$120,016 median, better than 86% of cities
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 83% of cities
- Low vacancyBetter than 74% of cities
- Big-city accessBetter than 73% of cities
Where Vacaville ranks low
- Cell coverageBetter than only 9% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 15% of cities
- Heat safetyBetter than only 16% of cities
- Cheap childcare$1,462 a month, better than only 17% of cities
- Internet speedBetter than only 20% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Vacaville
A household needs to earn about $166,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Vacaville home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $120,016, 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 Vacaville's effective rate of 0.76%, 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 10 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Vacaville
Vacaville's age mix sits close to the national median, 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 Vacaville.
Who works in Vacaville, and how
Work in Vacaville centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 83%
- Work from home 13%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Vacaville
Vacaville has more restaurants and bars per resident than 66% of cities and more parkland per resident than 83% of cities. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Vacaville and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Vacaville, month by month
Vacaville sees roughly 138 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 98 degrees. January highs sit near 61, with lows near 38. The comfortable stretch runs March through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 61° | 49° | 38° |
| April | 77° | 61° | 45° |
| July | 98° | 78° | 59° |
| October | 83° | 65° | 48° |
Flying in and out of Vacaville
Sacramento International sits about 31 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 6.8 million passengers in 2025, with 85 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Vacaville
Schools across Vacaville average a C+, better than 48% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Kairos PublicB · 46% proficient
Top middle schools
- John Knight MiddleD · 23% proficient
- Winters MiddleD− · 15% proficient
Top high schools
- Angelo Rodriguez HighB+ · 51% proficient
- Dixon HighC+ · 40% proficient
- Winters HighD+ · 25% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Vacaville school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Vacaville 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 Vacaville against the other 444 cities.
Who Vacaville suits
Families
Schools land around the 48th percentile and crime safety beats 60%.
Retirees
The weather beats 68% of cities, health care access beats 61%, and it is quieter than 73%.
Common questions about living in Vacaville
Is Vacaville a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Vacaville ranks 179th of 445 cities. It scores highest on clean air, high incomes, and a stable housing market, and lowest on cell coverage and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Vacaville expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $640,050. The overall cost of living runs about 23% above the national average. Set against a $120,016 median income, cost of living beats 65% of cities.
Is Vacaville safe?
Yes, Vacaville is safer than 60% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $391 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Vacaville?
July highs average about 98 degrees, and January highs near 61 with lows near 38. That works out to about 138 pleasant days a year, more than 68% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Vacaville?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Northwestern Vacaville, Northeastern Vacaville, and Leisure Town. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Vacaville good for families?
Schools beat 48% of cities, crime safety beats 60%, and childcare runs $1,462 a month.
Is Vacaville good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 65% of cities, though advertised internet speeds beat only 20% of cities. About 13% of workers already work from home.
Compare Vacaville with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Vacaville. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Vacaville 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.
Vacaville detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Vacaville: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Vacaville: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Vacaville: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Vacaville: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Vacaville 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.