coastal<\/a>, small\u2011city living and access to the broader San Diego\u2013North County job market, all while feeling more relaxed than Santa Monica or downtown LA. With about 63,700 residents and a median age of 42.9, the community skews slightly older, with a mix of families, long\u2011time locals, and retirees.<\/p>\nThe median household income of $158,376 and an unemployment rate of about 4% both outperform national averages, reflecting a relatively healthy local job market despite the city\u2019s laid\u2011back reputation. However, Encinitas\u2019 median home value is around $1,531,696, and typical rents hover near $2,503 per month, which contributes to a low Value Index score of 1.2 out of 10.<\/p>\n
With an average commute time of just over 21 minutes and a majority of residents driving to work, Encinitas is especially appealing to people who want Southern California career access.<\/p>\n
How the study ranked U.S. cities<\/p>\n
For the 2026\u20132027 list, U.S. News analyzed 250 large U.S. cities using national datasets from agencies such as the Census Bureau, the FBI and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.<\/p>\n
Each place was rated in four main areas: quality of life, affordability (including housing costs and general expenses), strength of the local job market, and overall desirability, based partly on migration patterns and survey feedback.<\/p>\n
Cities that rose to the top tended to pair strong economic conditions with more manageable living costs, with Carmel, Indiana taking the No. 1 overall spot. Other top performers were clustered in states like Texas, Iowa, Georgia, Alabama and Missouri.<\/p>\n
While Encinitas ranked among the top cities in California, it came in at No. 235 nationally out of the 250 cities on the list.<\/p>\n
\ud83c\udf10 Learn more: U.S. News & World Report: 250 Best Places to Live in the U.S. in 2026-2027<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aerial-motion \/ Shutterstock U.S. News & World Report released its 2026\u20132027 Best Places to Live in the U.S.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[74,76,75],"class_list":["post-427153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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