Best PlacesWoodbury, Irvine, CA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Woodbury, Irvine, 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.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Woodbury, Irvine ranks 288th of 5,983 U.S. neighborhoods on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on population health by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.

#288
of 5,983 neighborhoods
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 5,983 neighborhoods
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Woodbury, Irvine

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Woodbury, Irvine area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
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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.

Woodbury, Irvine's strengths and weaknesses

#288Best US area overall
Top 1%Population health
Top 1%The weather
Top 5%Low crime
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Woodbury, Irvine with other neighborhoods.

Where Woodbury, Irvine ranks high

  • Health outlookBetter than 99% of neighborhoods
  • Nice weatherabout 330 pleasant days a year, better than 99% of neighborhoods
  • Crime safetyBetter than 95% of neighborhoods
  • Household income$168,148 median, better than 95% of neighborhoods
  • Big-city accessBetter than 92% of neighborhoods

Where Woodbury, Irvine ranks low

  • Housing crash safetyBetter than only 1% of neighborhoods
  • Air qualityBetter than only 15% of neighborhoods
  • Short commute30.9 minutes each way, better than only 16% of neighborhoods
  • TransitBetter than only 18% of neighborhoods
  • Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 20% of neighborhoods

What it costs to buy a home in Woodbury, Irvine

A household needs to earn about $346,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Woodbury, Irvine home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $168,148, so buying stretches a typical household.

Income to buy the median home
$346,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$8,070
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $1,294,450 home
Median rent
$3,093
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$6,600
Property tax$1,039
Homeowners insurance$431

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 Woodbury, Irvine's effective rate of 0.96%, 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 Woodbury, Irvine

Woodbury, Irvine runs younger than the country.

Median age
37
younger than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
8%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.8
near the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1828%
18 to 3424%
35 to 4921%
50 to 6419%
65 and older8%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Woodbury, Irvine.


Who works in Woodbury, Irvine, and how

Work in Woodbury, Irvine centers on professional & technical and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
28%
above the national average
Unemployment
2.1%
below the national average
Job growth
+4.3%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Professional & technical18%
Manufacturing15%
Health care & social12%
Education9%
Retail trade8%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 69%
  • Work from home 28%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 3%

Life in Woodbury, Irvine

Woodbury, Irvine has more parkland per resident than 84% of neighborhoods. The coast is about 13 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Woodbury, Irvine and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
32
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 18.0 per 10,000 residents, more than 42% of neighborhoods
Coffee shops
7
about 3.9 per 10,000 residents, more than 66% of neighborhoods
Parkland
165 acres
about 9.3 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 84% of neighborhoods
To the coast
13 min
drive to the nearest ocean beaches

What the weather is like in Woodbury, Irvine, month by month

Woodbury, Irvine sees roughly 330 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 81 degrees. January highs sit near 69, 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
January69°58°48°
April73°63°56°
July81°72°66°
October81°69°61°

Flying in and out of Woodbury, Irvine

John Wayne/Orange County sits about 7 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 5.5 million passengers in 2025, with 80 nonstop destinations.

Nearest airport
SNA
John Wayne/Orange County, about 7 miles
Airport size
Medium hub
42nd-busiest in the US, 80 nonstop destinations
Average drive
10 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Woodbury, Irvine

Schools across Woodbury, Irvine average an A, better than 91% of neighborhoods.

Top high schools

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


Woodbury, Irvine 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 Woodbury, Irvine against the other 5,982 neighborhoods.


Common questions about living in Woodbury, Irvine

Is Woodbury, Irvine a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Woodbury, Irvine ranks 288th of 5,983 neighborhoods. It scores highest on population health, the weather, and low crime, and lowest on an overheated housing market and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Woodbury, Irvine expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $1,294,450. The overall cost of living runs about 62% above the national average. Set against a $168,148 median income, cost of living beats 74% of neighborhoods.

Is Woodbury, Irvine safe?

Yes, Woodbury, Irvine is safer than 95% of neighborhoods. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $229 per resident a year.


Compare Woodbury, Irvine with other neighborhoods


Sources and methodology

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

Woodbury, Irvine detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

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

Woodbury, Irvine 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.