01 · the cities
Oxnard
Oxnard is California's strawberry capital, where the fields literally run up to the beach. Channel Islands Harbor is a quiet alternative to the busier Ventura and Santa Barbara, with great seafood and a chill Mexican food scene. The weather is the perfect 65-and-overcast that locals call 'June gloom' for most of summer. The Channel Islands themselves are a ferry ride away.
full dispatch→Riverside
Riverside is where the navel orange got its start in America, with the parent tree from 1873 still alive and producing fruit on a downtown corner. The Mission Inn is a wildly ornate Spanish Revival hotel that hosts the country's biggest holiday lights festival. Riverside's downtown is genuinely walkable, with citrus groves still scattered through the foothills. Summers are dry and bright, with the foothills cooling the evenings.
full dispatch→02 · the money
Median rent
Median rent
$2,995/mo
$2,493/mo
$502/mo less than Oxnard (20%)
Median home price
Median home price
$923k
$595k
$328k less than Oxnard
State income tax
State income tax
9.3%
9.3%
Gross left after rent
Gross left after rent
$4,563/mo
$5,065/mo
Riverside has $502/mo more gross after rent at $100k
Gross left after rent reflects state income tax but not federal, based on $100k salary. Enter your salary to find your ideal city.
03 · the weather
Pleasant days/yr
Pleasant days/yr
342 days
249 days
93 fewer than Oxnard
Extreme heat days
Extreme heat days
0 days
47 days
days above 95°F per year
Extreme cold days
Extreme cold days
0 days
0 days
days below 20°F per year
Riverside has 47 more days above 95°F each year than Oxnard.
04 · the life
OutdoorScore
OutdoorScore
74 / 100
69 / 100
5.0 pts behind Oxnard
Nonstop flights
Nonstop flights
0 routes
14 routes
14 more direct routes than Oxnard
Metro size
Metro size
830k metro
4.7M metro
Oxnard has 4.0x more events per month than Riverside.
the verdict
3
Oxnard
categories won
4
Riverside
categories won
Riverside wins on money. Oxnard has the edge on weather.
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