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Not everyone is cut out for city life. Some people would prefer to live in the cities and towns that surround Fremont.
So the question arises, do the suburbs maintain a semblance of the larger-than-life appeal of their more famous neighbor?
Today, we'll use science and data to determine which Fremont 'burbs need a little tender loving care - the sore thumbs of the Fremont area if you will. Realistically, you can't expect all the suburbs to live up to Fremont proper, although Los Altos certainly tries.
Of course, not all suburbs of Fremont are created equally, which is precisely why we set out to find the best ones..
We examined the 44 biggest suburbs of Fremont to find out the worst places to live. And while you won't necessarily find them on the worst places to live in California lists, these ten places are a little too far downwind of Fremont in terms of quality of life.
Here are the 10 worst suburbs around Fremont for 2022:
What's the worst suburb of Fremont? Hayward ranks as the worst suburb of Fremont for 2022 based on the most recent Census and FBI data.
Read on to see how we determined the places around Fremont that need a pick-me-up. And remember, don't blame the messenger.
Or, if you're thinking of moving to elsewhere in California check out the best places in California overall or the worst.
And remember, there are some good places to live around Fremont too.
Editor's Note: If you see a slight difference between the worst in state rankings and this suburb ranking, it's because of the methodology. We needed a way to include more places, so we eliminated crime and commute times as criteria for this analysis.
For more California reading, check out:
- Best Places To Live In California
- Cheapest Places To Live In California
- Most Dangerous Cities In California
The 10 Worst Fremont Suburbs To Live For 2022
We'll get the ball rolling with Hayward, the absolute worst place to live around Fremont according to the data.
And in the world of worst rankings, Hayward beat the competition pretty handily thanks to scoring in the bottom 15% in three major categories. Income is the 4th worst in the Fremont area, and to make matters worse, the city ranks worst when it comes to home values.
But hey, at least it's cheap to live there. But there's a reason for that... it's Hayward.
You won't feel bad about not having a great income for the area, there aren't a bunch of places to spend your money anyway.
/10
Welcome to Oakland. Home to KMart, Big Lots, and a lot of gas stations.
This city is 24.6 miles to Fremont. Income levels here are the lowest in the metro area, where families bring in about $80,143 a year, which doesn't go a long ways even on a shoestring budget.
But on the bright side, there are a lot of fast food joints in the area.
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Back up the highway we go for the third worst Fremont suburb you can live in. You might have expected to see San Leandro on here. While the cost of living is low, your entertainment and work options are limited. And that's an understatement.
In terms of numbers, it's in the worst 15% for insurance, and the adult high school drop out rate is poor compared to other Fremont suburbs.
But at least there are nice parks to bring the kids during the day.
/10
If you live in San Jose, most likely you struggle to make ends meet every month. It ranks as the 10th lowest Fremont suburb when it comes to residents making money.
Not only that, but this is the 8th worst unemployed suburb you can live in if you choose to live near Fremont. Remember, we looked at 44 cities for this study.
San Jose is about 15.2 miles to downtown.
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East Palo Alto has the distinction of being a Fremont suburb. Which means that's about all it has going for it.
All snarkiness aside, East Palo Alto has the 14th lowest home values in the metro Fremont area, where the median price is $941,300. To put that into perspective, in Los Altos, the median income is $250,001, which is the best in the area.
East Palo Alto has an unemployment rate of 4.14% which ranks 19th worst.
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Brisbane has 4,645 residents that probably know it's a pretty crummy place to live when you look at the data. (Or, if you've ever been there, you don't need to look at the data.)
Incomes are towards the bottom and the poverty rate sits at 3.411560191221208%.
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Ah, Morgan Hill. You rank as the 7th worst place to live around Fremont.
It's the place with the 17th most out of work residents in the Fremont metro area (4.25%).
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Alameda is a city about 24.4 miles from Fremont, but Fremont probably wishes it was further away. It ranks as the 8th worst burb for 2018.
You'd be hard pressed to find a worse place to live. Alameda has the 16th most uninsured people, 6th worst incomes, and has the 22nd highest unemployment rate (4.03%) in the entire Fremont metro area.
Homes only cost $920,200 for a reason. That's cheap for Fremont standards.
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If you absolutely have to live near Fremont, then San Bruno might be a place for you to consider as it's only the 9th worst Fremont suburb.
About 4.38% of residents are out of work.
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Rounding out the ten worst Fremont suburbs to call home is San Mateo.
Located 20.7 miles outside the city, San Mateos is a real pit when you look at the data. Its residents have the 10th highest unemployment rate (4.55%), and poverty is far above the area average.
/10
Methodology: Determining The Worst Suburbs Around Fremont for 2022
To figure out how bad a place is to live in, we only needed to know what kinds of things people like and then decide what cities have the least amount of those things.
We threw a lot of criteria at this one in order to get the best, most complete results possible. Using the most recent American Community Survey data from 2016-2020, this is the criteria we used:
- High unemployment rate
- Low median household incomes
- Low population density (no things to do)
- Low home values
- A lot of high school drop outs
- High poverty
- High rate of uninsured families
FYI: We defined a suburb as being within 30 miles of Fremont.
Additionally, we limited the analysis to places that have over 3,000 people. This left us with a grand total of 44 suburbs to evaluate around Fremont.
We ranked each place with scores from 1 to 44 in each category, where 1 was the "worst".
Next, we averaged the rankings for each place to create a quality of life index.
And finally, we crowned the city with the worst quality of life index the "Worst Suburb near Fremont." We're lookin' at you, Hayward. You can download the data here.
Read on below to learn more about what it's like to live in the worst of the worst. Or skip to the end to see the list of all the suburbs ranked from worst to best.
Summary: The areas around Fremont where the dream is more of a nightmare for 2022
Well there you have it -- the worst of the 'burbs surrounding Fremont with Hayward casting itself ahead of the pack.
As we mentioned earlier, the suburbs around Fremont aren't all bad. Los Altos takes the cake as the best place to live around Fremont.
- Los Altos
- Piedmont
- Los Altos Hills
For more California reading, check out:
- Best Places To Retire In California
- Richest Cities In California
- Safest Places In California
- Worst Places To Live In California
Detailed List Of The Worst Fremont Suburbs
Rank | City | Population |
---|---|---|
1 | Hayward | 158,817 |
2 | Oakland | 422,575 |
3 | San Leandro | 90,489 |
4 | San Jose | 1,029,409 |
5 | East Palo Alto | 29,448 |
6 | Brisbane | 4,645 |
7 | Morgan Hill | 44,789 |
8 | Alameda | 79,827 |
9 | San Bruno | 44,663 |
10 | San Mateo | 103,619 |
11 | Half Moon Bay | 12,583 |
12 | Walnut Creek | 69,836 |
13 | Newark | 48,148 |
14 | South San Francisco | 66,878 |
15 | Milpitas | 75,182 |
16 | Santa Clara | 126,723 |
17 | Livermore | 91,763 |
18 | Campbell | 42,891 |
19 | Mountain View | 80,104 |
20 | Millbrae | 22,998 |
21 | Moraga | 16,896 |
22 | Belmont | 26,963 |
23 | Sunnyvale | 152,569 |
24 | Dublin | 63,856 |
25 | Pleasanton | 79,975 |
26 | San Ramon | 81,344 |
27 | Danville | 44,933 |
28 | Menlo Park | 35,211 |
29 | Palo Alto | 67,973 |
30 | Burlingame | 30,071 |
31 | Los Gatos | 31,943 |
32 | Cupertino | 59,799 |
33 | Lafayette | 25,949 |
34 | Saratoga | 31,084 |
35 | Portola Valley | 4,568 |
36 | San Carlos | 29,647 |
37 | Woodside | 5,593 |
38 | Atherton | 7,060 |
39 | Hillsborough | 11,608 |
40 | Orinda | 19,461 |
41 | Monte Sereno | 3,511 |
42 | Los Altos Hills | 8,496 |
43 | Piedmont | 11,454 |
44 | Los Altos | 30,878 |