01 · the cities
San Jose
San Jose is Silicon Valley's anchor city, much bigger than San Francisco by population, and culturally underrated because everyone drives through it on the way somewhere else. The Vietnamese food scene (especially in Little Saigon) is one of the best in the country. The weather is impossibly mild, the Santa Cruz Mountains rise to the west, and the tech money funds a genuinely excellent restaurant scene.
full dispatch→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→02 · the money
Median rent
Median rent
$3,470/mo
$2,995/mo
$475/mo less than San Jose (16%)
Median home price
Median home price
$1.8M
$923k
$874k less than San Jose
State income tax
State income tax
9.3%
9.3%
Gross left after rent
Gross left after rent
$4,088/mo
$4,563/mo
Oxnard has $475/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
283 days
342 days
59 more than San Jose
Extreme heat days
Extreme heat days
19 days
0 days
days above 95°F per year
Extreme cold days
Extreme cold days
0 days
0 days
days below 20°F per year
San Jose has 19 more days above 95°F each year than Oxnard.
04 · the life
OutdoorScore
OutdoorScore
70 / 100
74 / 100
4.0 pts ahead of San Jose
Nonstop flights
Nonstop flights
29 routes
0 routes
29 fewer direct routes than San Jose
Metro size
Metro size
1.9M metro
830k metro
San Jose has 2.6x more events per month than Oxnard.
the verdict
1
San Jose
categories won
6
Oxnard
categories won
Oxnard wins this comparison, leading on money and weather.
run your numbers
How far does your San Jose salary go?
Enter your salary to see a full ranked list of cities where you would live better.
see your top citiesWe use a proprietary blend of data from the US Census, Zillow, Ticketmaster, and more.
Walk Score® is a trademark of Walk Score, a Redfin company. How Walk Score works