Best PlacesVisalia, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Visalia metro, 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.
Photo by Original uploader was VisalianNsf at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via commons
Visalia ranks 358th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on air quality and education levels. It does better on cell coverage, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Visalia metro
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 Visalia
The towns and districts of the Visalia metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
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.
Downtown 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.
Visalia 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.
Visalia's strengths and weaknesses
Visalia ranks near the bottom because several of the basics fall short at once. Cell coverage, few empty homes, and walkability carry most of that.
The weak spots are broad rather than narrow: air quality, education levels, and thin health care access all drag on the score. Those are area averages, and the map below shows which parts run well above them.
Where Visalia ranks high
- Cell coverageBetter than 87% of metro areas
- Low vacancyBetter than 79% of metro areas
- WalkabilityBetter than 78% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than 74% of metro areas
- Nice weatherabout 119 pleasant days a year, better than 73% of metro areas
Where Visalia ranks low
- Air qualityBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 2% of metro areas
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 2% of metro areas
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 4% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Visalia
A household needs to earn about $85,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Visalia 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 Visalia'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 Visalia
Visalia 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 Visalia.
Who works in Visalia, and how
Work in Visalia 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 Visalia
Visalia has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas and less parkland per resident than most metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Visalia and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Visalia growing, and who is moving in?
Visalia 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 Visalia go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Visalia, month by month
Visalia 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 Visalia
The nearest airport, Fresno Yosemite International, is about 38 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Bob Hope, about 156 miles away.
The best schools in and around Visalia
Schools across Visalia average a C, better than 25% of metro areas.
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
- La Joya MiddleC− · 30% 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 Visalia school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Visalia 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 Visalia against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Visalia suits
Retirees
The weather beats 73% of metro areas and it is quieter than 57%.
Common questions about living in Visalia
Is Visalia a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Visalia ranks 358th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on cell coverage, few empty homes, and walkability, and lowest on air quality and education levels. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Visalia 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 4% of metro areas.
Is Visalia safe?
Visalia is safer than 31% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $420 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Visalia?
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 73% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Visalia?
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 Visalia good for families?
Schools beat 25% of metro areas, crime safety beats 31%, and childcare runs $947 a month.
Is Visalia good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 4% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 44% of metro areas. About 7% of workers already work from home.
Compare Visalia with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Visalia. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Visalia 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.
Visalia detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Visalia: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Visalia: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Visalia: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Visalia: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Visalia 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.