Best PlacesWest Adams, Los Angeles, CA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around West Adams, Los Angeles, 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.

See the map of best neighborhoods

West Adams, Los Angeles ranks 4,040th of 5,983 U.S. neighborhoods on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on the weather by a wide margin, and air quality ranks lowest.

#4,040
of 5,983 neighborhoods
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
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of 5,983 neighborhoods
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The best neighborhoods in West Adams, Los Angeles

Map of the best neighborhoods in the West Adams, Los Angeles area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
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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.

West Adams, Los Angeles' strengths and weaknesses

Top 3%The weather
Top 5%Big-city access
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare West Adams, Los Angeles with other neighborhoods.

Where West Adams, Los Angeles ranks high

  • Nice weatherabout 305 pleasant days a year, better than 97% of neighborhoods
  • Big-city accessBetter than 96% of neighborhoods
  • Low property taxBetter than 88% of neighborhoods
  • TransitBetter than 86% of neighborhoods
  • BikingBetter than 80% of neighborhoods

Where West Adams, Los Angeles ranks low

  • Air qualityBetter than only 4% of neighborhoods
  • Tree shadeBetter than only 10% of neighborhoods
  • Disaster safetyBetter than only 13% of neighborhoods
  • Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 14% of neighborhoods
  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 15% of neighborhoods

What it costs to buy a home in West Adams, Los Angeles

A household needs to earn about $253,000 a year to comfortably buy the median West Adams, Los Angeles home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $76,023, so buying stretches a typical household.

Income to buy the median home
$253,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$5,895
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $999,715 home
Median rent
$1,739
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$5,097
Property tax$464
Homeowners insurance$333

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 West Adams, Los Angeles' effective rate of 0.56%, 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.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in West Adams, Los Angeles

West Adams, Los Angeles runs younger than the country.

Median age
38
younger than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
13%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.5
near the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1820%
18 to 3426%
35 to 4923%
50 to 6418%
65 and older13%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for West Adams, Los Angeles.


Who works in West Adams, Los Angeles, and how

Work in West Adams, Los Angeles centers on hospitality & food and health care & social. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
16%
about the national average
Unemployment
10.2%
above the national average
Job growth
+2.4%
/y 2019-2023, near the national pace

Largest industries

Hospitality & food13%
Health care & social13%
Professional & technical9%
Other services9%
Information8%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 74%
  • Work from home 16%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 10%

Life in West Adams, Los Angeles

The coast is about 8 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across West Adams, Los Angeles, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
41
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 34.9 per 10,000 residents, more than 56% of neighborhoods
Coffee shops
8
about 6.8 per 10,000 residents, more than 73% of neighborhoods
To the coast
8 min
drive to the nearest ocean beaches

What the weather is like in West Adams, Los Angeles, month by month

West Adams, Los Angeles sees roughly 305 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 70, with lows near 48. Every month averages in that range.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January70°58°48°
April76°64°55°
July85°73°65°
October82°69°60°

Flying in and out of West Adams, Los Angeles

Los Angeles International sits about 6 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 36.7 million passengers in 2025, with 247 nonstop destinations.

Nearest airport
LAX
Los Angeles International, about 6 miles
Airport size
Large hub
5th-busiest in the US, 247 nonstop destinations
Average drive
9 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around West Adams, Los Angeles

Schools across West Adams, Los Angeles average a C, better than 41% of neighborhoods.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every West Adams, Los Angeles school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


West Adams, Los Angeles 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 West Adams, Los Angeles against the other 5,982 neighborhoods.


Common questions about living in West Adams, Los Angeles

Is West Adams, Los Angeles a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, West Adams, Los Angeles ranks 4,040th of 5,983 neighborhoods. It scores highest on the weather, big-city access, and low property taxes, and lowest on air quality and tree cover. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is West Adams, Los Angeles expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $999,715. The overall cost of living runs about 47% above the national average. Set against a $76,023 median income, cost of living beats 14% of neighborhoods.

Is West Adams, Los Angeles safe?

West Adams, Los Angeles is safer than 22% of neighborhoods. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $707 per resident a year.


Compare West Adams, Los Angeles with other neighborhoods


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to West Adams, Los Angeles. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in West Adams, Los Angeles 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.

West Adams, Los Angeles detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for West Adams, Los Angeles: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in West Adams, Los Angeles: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of West Adams, Los Angeles: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in West Adams, Los Angeles: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

West Adams, Los Angeles detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.