Best PlacesVan Nuys, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Van Nuys, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Van Nuys ranks 401st of 445 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 14 minutes away. Its strengths are biking and cell coverage. The cost shows up in the cost of living against local pay, internet speeds, and civic engagement.
The best neighborhoods in Van Nuys
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.
Van Nuys' strengths and weaknesses
Van Nuys ranks near the bottom because several of the basics fall short at once. Biking, cell coverage, and big-city access carry most of that.
The weak spots are broad rather than narrow: the cost of living against local pay, internet speeds, and civic engagement all drag on the score. Those are area averages, and the map below shows which parts run well above them.
Where Van Nuys ranks high
- BikingBetter than 94% of cities
- Cell coverageBetter than 94% of cities
- Big-city accessBetter than 93% of cities
- TransitBetter than 92% of cities
- Nice weatherabout 240 pleasant days a year, better than 92% of cities
Where Van Nuys ranks low
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 2% of cities
- Internet speedBetter than only 5% of cities
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 6% of cities
- Air qualityBetter than only 8% of cities
- QuietBetter than only 8% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Van Nuys
A household needs to earn about $211,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Van Nuys home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $78,897, 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 Van Nuys' effective rate of 0.64%, 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 Van Nuys
Van Nuys runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Van Nuys.
Who works in Van Nuys, and how
Work in Van Nuys centers on health care & social and construction. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 75%
- Work from home 16%
- Transit, walk, or bike 9%
Life in Van Nuys
Van Nuys has more restaurants and bars per resident than 66% of cities and more parkland per resident than 95% of cities. The coast is about 14 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Van Nuys and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Van Nuys, month by month
Van Nuys sees roughly 240 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 95 degrees. January highs sit near 70, with lows near 46. The comfortable stretch runs October through June.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 70° | 57° | 46° |
| April | 79° | 64° | 52° |
| July | 95° | 78° | 65° |
| October | 88° | 71° | 58° |
Flying in and out of Van Nuys
Bob Hope sits about 6 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 3.1 million passengers in 2025, with 54 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Van Nuys
Schools across Van Nuys average a C, better than 31% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Lashon AcademyC− · 30% proficient
Top middle schools
- Valley Charter MiddleD+ · 25% proficient
Top high schools
- High Tech LaB+ · 57% proficient
- Early College Academy-la Trade Tech CollegeB · 50% proficient
- Champs - Charter Hs Of Arts-multimedia & PerformingB · 50% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Van Nuys school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Van Nuys 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 Van Nuys against the other 444 cities.
Who Van Nuys suits
Common questions about living in Van Nuys
Is Van Nuys a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Van Nuys ranks 401st of 445 cities. It scores highest on biking, cell coverage, and big-city access, and lowest on the cost of living against local pay and internet speeds. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Van Nuys expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $827,705. The overall cost of living runs about 37% above the national average. Set against a $78,897 median income, cost of living beats 2% of cities.
Is Van Nuys safe?
Van Nuys is safer than 24% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $488 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Van Nuys?
July highs average about 95 degrees, and January highs near 70 with lows near 46. That works out to about 240 pleasant days a year, more than 92% of cities.
Is Van Nuys good for families?
Schools beat 31% of cities, crime safety beats 24%, and childcare runs $1,130 a month.
Is Van Nuys good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 2% of cities, though advertised internet speeds beat only 5% of cities. About 16% of workers already work from home.
Compare Van Nuys with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Van Nuys. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Van Nuys 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.
Van Nuys detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Van Nuys: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Van Nuys: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Van Nuys: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Van Nuys: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Van Nuys 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.