Best PlacesValley Home, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Valley Home, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Valley Home ranks 19,524th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on the weather by a wide margin, and taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Valley Home
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.
Valley Home's strengths and weaknesses
Where Valley Home ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 148 pleasant days a year, better than 92% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 92% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 88% of towns
- Household income$101,906 median, better than 86% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 75% of towns
Where Valley Home ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 11% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 12% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,168 a month, better than only 14% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 17% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Valley Home
A household needs to earn about $222,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Valley Home home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $101,906, 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 Valley Home's effective rate of 0.70%, 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 Valley Home
Valley Home 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 Valley Home.
Who works in Valley Home, and how
Work in Valley Home centers on retail trade and health care & social. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 86%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Valley Home
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Valley Home.
What the weather is like in Valley Home, month by month
Valley Home sees roughly 148 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 98 degrees. January highs sit near 59, with lows near 39. The comfortable stretch runs March through May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 59° | 49° | 39° |
| April | 77° | 62° | 48° |
| July | 98° | 81° | 63° |
| October | 82° | 65° | 51° |
Flying in and out of Valley Home
The nearest airport, Stockton Metro, is about 20 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Norman Y Mineta San Jose International, about 64 miles away.
The best schools in and around Valley Home
Schools across Valley Home average a C+, better than 44% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Valley Home ElementaryB− · 40% proficient
- Fair Oaks ElementaryC+ · 40% proficient
- Dent ElementaryC · 33% proficient
Top middle schools
- El Portal MiddleC · 35% proficient
- Oakdale Junior HighD+ · 25% proficient
Top high schools
- Oakdale HighB · 50% proficient
- Escalon HighB− · 43% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Valley Home school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Valley Home 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 Valley Home against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Valley Home
Is Valley Home a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Valley Home ranks 19,524th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on the weather, big-city access, and cell coverage, and lowest on taxes and summer heat. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Valley Home expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $861,882. The overall cost of living runs about 12% above the national average. Set against a $101,906 median income, cost of living beats 63% of towns.
Is Valley Home safe?
Valley Home is safer than 34% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $381 per resident a year.
Compare Valley Home with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Valley Home. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Valley Home 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.
Valley Home detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Valley Home: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Valley Home: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Valley Home: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Valley Home: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Valley Home 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.