Best PlacesYuba City, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Yuba City metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Ray Bouknight from Sacramento, CA, USA, CC BY 2.0, via commons
Yuba City ranks 294th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on education levels and long commutes. It does better on few empty homes, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Yuba City metro
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.
The best areas in Yuba City
The towns and districts of the Yuba City metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Live Oak & Sutter
Local pay stretches further, incomes run higher, and commutes are shorter.
Olivehurst
More households have young kids, though streets are more car-dependent.
Wheatland & Plumas Lake
Biking is worse and prices have run up more.
Marysville
It is noisier and heat risk is higher.
Downtown Yuba City
Crime runs higher and health care is harder to reach.
Linda
More adults hold degrees, though schools score lower.
Scores across Yuba City run from about the 3rd to the 81st percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Yuba City's strengths and weaknesses
Yuba City ranks near the bottom because several of the basics fall short at once. Few empty homes, big-city access, and the weather carry most of that.
The weak spots are broad rather than narrow: education levels, long commutes, and civic engagement all drag on the score. Those are area averages, and the map below shows which parts run well above them.
Where Yuba City ranks high
- Low vacancyBetter than 89% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than 81% of metro areas
- Nice weatherabout 132 pleasant days a year, better than 80% of metro areas
- BikingBetter than 76% of metro areas
- WalkabilityBetter than 75% of metro areas
Where Yuba City ranks low
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 5% of metro areas
- Short commute29.5 minutes each way, better than only 5% of metro areas
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 6% of metro areas
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of metro areas
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 9% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Yuba City
A household needs to earn about $108,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Yuba City home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $84,156, 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 Yuba City's effective rate of 0.75%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 10 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Yuba City
Yuba City 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 Yuba City.
Who works in Yuba City, and how
Work in Yuba City centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 88%
- Work from home 9%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Yuba City
Yuba City has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas and less parkland per resident than most metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Yuba City and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Yuba City growing, and who is moving in?
Yuba City has grown about 10% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Sacramento, CA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Yuba City go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Yuba City, month by month
Yuba City sees roughly 132 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 99 degrees. January highs sit near 59, with lows near 39. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 59° | 49° | 39° |
| April | 76° | 61° | 46° |
| July | 99° | 80° | 61° |
| October | 83° | 64° | 48° |
Flying in and out of Yuba City
Sacramento International sits about 30 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 6.8 million passengers in 2025, with 85 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Yuba City
Schools across Yuba City average a C−, better than 11% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Franklin ElementaryB+ · 52% proficient
- King Avenue ElementaryB · 50% proficient
- Twin Rivers CharterB− · 44% proficient
Top middle schools
- Yuba Gardens IntermediateD− · 17% proficient
Top high schools
- Aerostem AcademyC+ · 40% proficient
- River Valley HighC+ · 38% proficient
- Yuba City HighC+ · 37% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Yuba City school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Yuba City 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 Yuba City against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Yuba City suits
Retirees
The weather beats 80% of metro areas and it is quieter than 61%.
Common questions about living in Yuba City
Is Yuba City a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Yuba City ranks 294th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on few empty homes, big-city access, and the weather, and lowest on education levels and long commutes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Yuba City expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $417,543. The overall cost of living runs about 2% above the national average. Set against a $84,156 median income, cost of living beats 24% of metro areas.
Is Yuba City safe?
Yuba City is safer than 53% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $357 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Yuba City?
July highs average about 99 degrees, and January highs near 59 with lows near 39. That works out to about 132 pleasant days a year, more than 80% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Yuba City?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Live Oak & Sutter, Olivehurst, and Wheatland & Plumas Lake. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Yuba City good for families?
Schools beat 11% of metro areas, crime safety beats 53%, and childcare runs $1,201 a month.
Is Yuba City good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 24% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 32% of metro areas. About 9% of workers already work from home.
Compare Yuba City with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Yuba City. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Yuba City 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.
Yuba City detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Yuba City: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Yuba City: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Yuba City: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Yuba City: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Yuba City 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.