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5 Best Places to Live in California
By Paul Reynolds MONEY RESEARCH COLLECTIVE
The feverish rise in California property values may have stalled, at least for now. But it’s still a challenge to find an affordable home in an appealing community where good jobs are plentiful.
Home prices continue to be a big part of the problem. While they may not be rising, at least as much as before, they also aren’t falling much, if at all. In the past year, prices for single-family homes in California have dropped a mere 2.5% statewide, to a median of $801,190, according to the California Association of Realtors (C.A.R.). Prices for condos and townhomes have actually risen slightly to $621,080.
Meanwhile, mortgage rates are a similar, sobering story. They, too, are stabilizing or even dropping, but they remain bracingly high compared to a year ago. While the average rate for a 30-year mortgage has decreased in recent weeks, it remains more than three percentage points higher than it was in December 2021, according to Freddie Mac. That translates into a huge jump in the actual cost of owning a home.
Of course, real estate prices continue to vary widely across California. You can still save by choosing to live in a region with relatively inexpensive housing. The Far North, Central Valley and Inland Empire have median home prices that are well below the state norm — at about $400,000, $450,000 and $550,000, respectively.
But economic opportunities in those less populous areas generally pale compared with coastal areas in the middle and south of the state. Ditto for availability of pro sports teams, plentiful restaurants and the other attractions of urban/suburban life that matter to many would-be homebuyers.
Yet there’s hope. This report identifies places in the state that successfully combine broad appeal and decent financial opportunity, including home prices that aren’t stratospheric.
The best places to live in California
Assembled using data from Money’s analysis of the best places to live across the country, our picks boast relatively affordable homes by California standards. With a few exceptions, the places we highlight have median home prices below $1,000,000 — and sometimes well below.
Our picks also consider economic opportunity. With one exception, jobs in the places we picked are comparatively plentiful (with unemployment at or below the state norm of 4%). And the jobs pay well enough that the community should be able to support such quality-of-life niceties as good recreational and cultural facilities. All the places we highlighted have median household incomes at or above the state average of $77,358.
Naturally, the financial fit isn’t everything when considering a place to live. The places we’ve selected vary in some important non-pocketbook issues. While many of the communities boast above-average school systems, not all do. Similarly, while none of the choices would be considered dangerous places to live, the incidence of crime naturally varies.
Here are five places to consider, ranked starting with the best in order of how well they combine economic opportunity with a relatively low cost of living — notably in housing. We’ve supplemented our main picks with additional places that are all within a half-hour or so drive of one another. They have similar charm and are worth a look if you’re considering the area.
1. Garden Grove
When seeking an appealing and affordable place to live in California, you could do worse than thinking Orange — as in the county of that name that lies southeast of Los Angeles.
Our data turned up a cluster of nine Orange County communities worthy of consideration. The top pick, Orange Grove, is among the least expensive of the group for housing, bested only by Anaheim. But these places rank closely in almost every respect; investigate one and you should probably explore them all.
Another OC community, Irvine, ranked 13th in Money’s national ranking. But we omitted it from this list because our choices emphasize relatively affordable housing. For all its attractions, Irvine is on the pricier side; the median home there sells for $1,300,000.
- Population
- 177,494
- Median household income
- $77,258
- Median home price
- $790,614
- Unemployment
- 2.8%
Nearby and also worth considering (with median home price)
- Anaheim: $790,614
- Placentia: $860,500
- Westminster: $888,555
- Buena Park: $802,371
- Tustin: $890,442
- Fullerton: $878,772
- Cypress: $963,710
- Habra: $800,000
2. San Diego
San DIego is by far the most populous place on our list. The city’s housing market, while hot, has largely avoided the superheated markets seen in other major California cities. The local economy is robust — driven by its huge naval base and strong IT, healthcare and biotech communities. Yet homes in San Diego remain within reach of the middle class. Prices are well below those in the priciest coastal communities further north.
San Diego won a spot in Money’s list of the 50 Best Places to Live across the country. Here’s the San Diego profile from that analysis.
- Population
- 1,381,275
- Median household income
- $96,246
- Median home price
- $963,261
- Unemployment
- 3.1%
3. San Bruno
This suburb is one of a rare breed: appealing, relatively affordable and yet within striking distance of San Francisco. You don’t even have to cross a bridge to get there.
Less than a half-hour away from the City by the Bay via train or car, San Bruno is diverse and family-friendly with above-average schools, according to real-estate site Niche.
A bit less affordable, in part due to higher housing prices, is Daly City, which otherwise has comparable economic appeal.
- Population
- 42,292
- Median household income
- $121,034
- Median home price
- $1,009,168
- Unemployment
- 1.9%
Nearby and also worth considering (with median home price)
- Daly City: $1,194,567
4. Oakland
The second Bay Area city that’s on our list is less family-friendly than its iconic neighbor, thanks in part to a less-consistent school system and a higher crime rate. But the median Oakland home is about 60% cheaper than the median San Francisco one — a price difference of more than $500,000. And the two cities are just an 11-minute train ride apart across San Francisco Bay.
- Population
- 413,935
- Median household income
- $92,619
- Median home price
- $939,202
- Unemployment
- 2.9%
5. Cerritos
Among the best places in California for families, according to real-estate site Niche, this suburb of Los Angeles has excellent schools and a host of recreational facilities.Some of those assets also help Cerrito rank (again, according to Niche) among the best places in California to retire.
True, Cerritos is the sole pick in which unemployment for its county is above the state average. But Los Angeles county includes a number of less affluent areas than Cerritos, where the median household income is in six figures.
Another community within L.A. county, Walnut, offers a similar mix of assets with higher property prices. Housing in another such suburb, La Mirada, is less expensive than in Cerritos and Walnut, but its schools are a step down from theirs, according to Niche.
- Population
- 48,828
- Median household income
- $105,533
- Median home price
- $953,734
- Unemployment
- 5%
Nearby and also worth considering (with median home price)
- La Mirada: $824,334
- Walnut: $1,055,087
Methodology
Our picks drew from 40 California communities that Money’s analysis of places to live across the country included. Four of those California places even ranked among the magazine’s final 50 best choices.
That national Money ranking considered the financial aspects of where you choose to live, but less strictly than we did with our California top five choices. Ours offer an especially strong combination of high economic opportunity (plentiful job opportunities at decent or better wages) and relatively low cost of living (including relatively low prices for housing, food, and other essentials).
Data on 2022 population and median household income was provided by Synergos Technologies Inc.; unemployment rate (by county) was provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and is as of July 2022; and median home price for 2022 was provided by ATTOM Data Solutions.
This story is sponsored by Amerisave, but the methodology, selection of places and content was created independently by the Money Research Collective.
