Best PlacesWilmington, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Wilmington, 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.
Wilmington ranks 1,596th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on the weather by a wide margin, and the cost of living against local pay is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Wilmington
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.
Wilmington's strengths and weaknesses
Where Wilmington ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 332 pleasant days a year, better than 99% of cities
- Big-city accessBetter than 96% of cities
- BikingBetter than 96% of cities
- WalkabilityBetter than 96% of cities
- TransitBetter than 92% of cities
Where Wilmington ranks low
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 1% of cities
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 1% of cities
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 1% of cities
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 2% of cities
- Tree shadeBetter than only 5% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Wilmington
A household needs to earn about $169,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Wilmington home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $73,525, 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 Wilmington's effective rate of 0.58%, 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 Wilmington
Wilmington 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 Wilmington.
Who works in Wilmington, and how
Work in Wilmington centers on transportation & warehousing and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 88%
- Work from home 6%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Wilmington
Wilmington has more parkland per resident than 84% of cities. The coast is about 5 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Wilmington and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Wilmington, month by month
Wilmington sees roughly 332 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 79 degrees. January highs sit near 67, with lows near 48. Every month averages in that range.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 67° | 59° | 48° |
| April | 71° | 64° | 53° |
| July | 79° | 73° | 64° |
| October | 78° | 70° | 58° |
Flying in and out of Wilmington
The nearest airport, Long Beach (Daugherty Field), is about 7 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Los Angeles International, about 14 miles away.
The best schools in and around Wilmington
Schools across Wilmington average a C+, better than 58% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Muir K-8B− · 42% proficient
- HudsonC− · 29% proficient
- Webster ElementaryD+ · 22% proficient
Top middle schools
- Helen Keller MiddleA · 60% proficient
Top high schools
- Dr. Richard A. Vladovic Harbor Teacher Preparation AcademyA+ · 86% proficient
- Eunice Sato Academy Of Math & ScienceA+ · 83% proficient
- Humanities And Arts (harts) Academy Of Los AngelesC+ · 38% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Wilmington school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Wilmington 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 Wilmington against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Wilmington suits
Common questions about living in Wilmington
Is Wilmington a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Wilmington ranks 1,596th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on the weather, big-city access, and biking, and lowest on the cost of living against local pay and education levels. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Wilmington expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $668,043. The overall cost of living runs about 33% above the national average. Set against a $73,525 median income, cost of living beats 1% of cities.
Is Wilmington safe?
Wilmington is safer than 16% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $475 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Wilmington?
July highs average about 79 degrees, and January highs near 67 with lows near 48. That works out to about 332 pleasant days a year, more than 100% of cities.
Is Wilmington good for families?
Schools beat 58% of cities, crime safety beats 16%, and childcare runs $1,130 a month.
Compare Wilmington with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Wilmington. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Wilmington 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.
Wilmington detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Wilmington: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Wilmington: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Wilmington: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Wilmington: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Wilmington 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.