Where home prices go furthest
This is the same index measured against home values rather than rents. Affordability is scored on ACS median home value, so an area ranks well when buying there costs less relative to the rest of Southern California.
Rent and price do not tell the same story. Large parts of central Los Angeles are comparatively reasonable to rent and severely expensive to buy, because the price reflects what owners expect the land to be worth rather than what tenants currently pay. Comparing this ranking against the rent-first one shows exactly where that gap opens up.
Same weighting, on a map of all 7,644 areas, where you can change the balance and see every measure behind a place.
Least expensive areas to buy
Mean score across every measured cell in each neighborhood, ranked against 263 neighborhoods. Names carried by fewer than three measured cells are left out, as are the cluster names this project invented where no established neighborhood name existed.
| # | Neighborhood | Affordability score | Median home value |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Park | 80 | $505,000 |
| 2 | Florence-Graham | 80 | $480,000 |
| 3 | Lancaster | 80 | $325,000 |
| 4 | Watts | 79 | $475,000 |
| 5 | Vermont-Slauson | 78 | $545,000 |
| 6 | Green Meadows | 77 | $510,000 |
| 7 | South Park | 77 | $575,000 |
| 8 | Lake Los Angeles | 77 | $260,000 |
| 9 | Vermont Knolls | 77 | $430,000 |
| 10 | Central-Alameda | 77 | $540,000 |
| 11 | Florence | 77 | $515,000 |
| 12 | San Fernando | 77 | $595,000 |
| 13 | Paramount | 76 | $500,000 |
| 14 | Quartz Hill | 76 | $410,000 |
| 15 | Palmdale | 76 | $345,000 |
| 16 | Vernon | 75 | $540,000 |
| 17 | Walnut Park | 75 | $560,000 |
| 18 | Cudahy | 75 | $545,000 |
| 19 | Willowbrook | 74 | $510,000 |
| 20 | Compton | 74 | $515,000 |
| 21 | Broadway-Manchester | 74 | $505,000 |
| 22 | South San Jose Hills | 74 | $540,000 |
| 23 | Maywood | 74 | $520,000 |
| 24 | South Gate | 73 | $570,000 |
| 25 | Panorama City | 73 | $600,000 |
Census home values are top-coded at just over two million dollars, so the most expensive areas share a ceiling rather than separating from one another. Values are self-reported by owners and describe the housing that exists, not what is currently for sale.
Use this data
Free to reuse with credit, including commercially.
How this is measured
- Affordability 60%. ACS B25064 median gross rent (block group)
- Location access 20%. EPA Smart Location Database walkability, transit access, density
- Environment 10%. CalEnviroScreen 4.0 diesel PM + traffic proximity, NLCD tree canopy
- Lifestyle 10%. OpenStreetMap place counts (restaurant, coffee, grocery, park, gym)
Every measure is a percentile rank from 0 to 100 against all 7,644 populated cells in Los Angeles and Orange County, so a score describes how an area compares within the region rather than against a national baseline. This lens scores 7,644 of them. Block-group figures are blended onto the grid by distance-weighted nearest centroids.
Data compiled 2026-08-20, methodology v1. Free to reuse with credit under CC BY 4.0; place counts come from OpenStreetMap and carry share-alike. Full terms, column definitions and limitations are on the data page.
Other ways to read the index
- Compare two places side by side
Every measure at once for up to four areas, each drawn against the whole region.
- Where rent goes furthest
Neighborhoods across LA and Orange County ranked by median rent against every other area in the region, using ACS block-group data.
- Cheap rent without needing a car
Neighborhoods in LA and Orange County that combine low rent with walkable streets and transit access, ranked from block-group and EPA walkability data.
- Low rent and clean air together
Where lower rent overlaps with cleaner air in LA and Orange County, using CalEnviroScreen diesel particulate and traffic data alongside ACS rents.
- Tree cover, clean air, little traffic
LA and Orange County neighborhoods ranked on air quality, traffic exposure and tree canopy, from CalEnviroScreen and national land-cover data.
- Plenty nearby, easy to get around
LA and Orange County neighborhoods ranked on restaurants, cafes, groceries and parks nearby combined with walkability and transit access.
- The areas with no affordable escape from pollution
LA and Orange County areas where high environmental exposure coincides with high rent burden, combining CalEnviroScreen with ACS rent-to-income data.
- Where police report the fewest incidents
LA and Orange County neighborhoods ranked by police-reported violent and property incident rates, from LAPD, LA County Sheriff and CA DOJ records.
- Where growing up led to higher adult earnings
LA and Orange County neighborhoods ranked on Opportunity Atlas outcomes: what children raised in each area earned as adults, from Census-linked tax records.