Best PlacesWalnut Creek, OH Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Walnut Creek, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Walnut Creek ranks 9,904th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on heat safety by a wide margin, and education levels rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Walnut Creek
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.
Walnut Creek's strengths and weaknesses
Where Walnut Creek ranks high
- Heat safetyBetter than 98% of towns
- School gradeA, better than 94% of towns
- Short commute17.3 minutes each way, better than 94% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 90% of towns
- BikingBetter than 86% of towns
Where Walnut Creek ranks low
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 1% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 6% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 9% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,273 a month, better than only 11% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 15% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Walnut Creek
A household needs to earn about $97,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Walnut Creek home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $97,240, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
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 Walnut Creek's effective rate of 0.82%, 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 Walnut Creek
Walnut Creek 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 Walnut Creek.
Who works in Walnut Creek, and how
Work in Walnut Creek centers on manufacturing and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 49%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 39%
Life in Walnut Creek
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Walnut Creek.
What the weather is like in Walnut Creek, month by month
Walnut Creek sees roughly 79 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 40, with lows near 22. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 40° | 30° | 22° |
| April | 66° | 52° | 39° |
| July | 87° | 74° | 63° |
| October | 70° | 56° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Walnut Creek
The nearest airport, Akron-Canton Regional, is about 29 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Cleveland-Hopkins International, about 60 miles away.
The best schools in and around Walnut Creek
Schools across Walnut Creek average an A, better than 94% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Winesburg Elementary SchoolA− · 58% proficient
Top middle schools
- Wise Elementary SchoolA+ · 75% proficient
Top high schools
- Hiland High SchoolA · 75% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Walnut Creek school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Walnut Creek 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 Walnut Creek against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Walnut Creek
Is Walnut Creek a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Walnut Creek ranks 9,904th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on heat safety, good schools, and short commutes, and lowest on education levels and civic engagement. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Walnut Creek expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $371,487. The overall cost of living runs about 12% below the national average. Set against a $97,240 median income, cost of living beats 83% of towns.
Is Walnut Creek safe?
Walnut Creek is safer than 15% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $425 per resident a year.
Compare Walnut Creek with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Walnut Creek. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Walnut Creek 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.
Walnut Creek detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Walnut Creek: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Walnut Creek: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Walnut Creek: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Walnut Creek: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Walnut Creek 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.