Best PlacesWrightwood, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Wrightwood, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Wrightwood ranks 31,384th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on big-city access by a wide margin, and air quality ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Wrightwood
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.
Wrightwood's strengths and weaknesses
Where Wrightwood ranks high
- Big-city accessBetter than 98% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 98% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 94% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 155 pleasant days a year, better than 94% of towns
- BikingBetter than 91% of towns
Where Wrightwood ranks low
- Air qualityBetter than only 1% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 9% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,247 a month, better than only 13% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Wrightwood
A household needs to earn about $124,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Wrightwood home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $78,519, 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 Wrightwood's effective rate of 0.71%, 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 Wrightwood
Wrightwood runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Wrightwood.
Who works in Wrightwood, and how
Work in Wrightwood centers on education and professional & technical. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 72%
- Work from home 23%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Wrightwood
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Wrightwood.
What the weather is like in Wrightwood, month by month
Wrightwood sees roughly 155 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 101 degrees. January highs sit near 60, with lows near 34. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 60° | 46° | 34° |
| April | 77° | 60° | 44° |
| July | 101° | 84° | 66° |
| October | 81° | 64° | 49° |
Flying in and out of Wrightwood
Ontario International sits about 21 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 3.5 million passengers in 2025, with 62 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Wrightwood
Schools across Wrightwood average a B−, better than 62% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Pinon Hills ElementaryD+ · 25% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Wrightwood school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Wrightwood 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 Wrightwood against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Wrightwood
Is Wrightwood a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Wrightwood ranks 31,384th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on big-city access, fast internet, and an educated workforce, and lowest on air quality and disaster risk. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Wrightwood expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $478,977. The overall cost of living runs about 14% above the national average. Set against a $78,519 median income, cost of living beats 32% of towns.
Is Wrightwood safe?
Wrightwood is safer than 37% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $371 per resident a year.
Compare Wrightwood with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Wrightwood. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Wrightwood 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.
Wrightwood detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Wrightwood: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Wrightwood: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Wrightwood: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Wrightwood: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Wrightwood 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.