The 10 Cheapest Bakersfield, CA Neighborhoods To Live In For 2024


The cheapest Bakersfield neighborhoods are Castle Ranch and Haggin Oaks for 2024 based on Saturday Night Science.

Worst Neighborhoods In Bakersfield
Source: Wikipedia User Bobak Ha’Eri | CC BY-SA 2.5

Everything else equal, we can all agree that living in a cheaper place is better than living in a more expensive place.

I’d much rather pay $500/mo in rent than $1,000. And I’d rather pay $2 for coffee than $5.

And while every neighbhorhood in Bakersfield might be more expensive than living in rural California, there are certain neighborhoods that are definitely cheaper.

What exactly are those Bakersfield neighborhoods where your dollar goes a little further — you can get that one bedroom instead of the studio?

Instead of relying on public opinion and speculation, we wanted to get the facts straight and determine which neighborhoods in Bakersfield are the cheapest using Saturday Night Science.

The Cheapest Neighborhoods In Bakersfield For 2024

  1. Castle Ranch
  2. Haggin Oaks
  3. Stone Meadows
  4. Rexland Acres
  5. College Heights-Baker Street
  6. The Oaks
  7. Hillcrest
  8. Tevis Ranch
  9. Southern Oaks
  10. Seven Oaks

What’s the cheapest neighborhood to live in Bakersfield for 2024? According to the most recent census data, Castle Ranch looks to be the cheapest Bakersfield neighborhood to live in.

At this point, we should make it clear that you do get what you pay for — some of these neighborhoods might not be the best places to live in Bakersfield. You could be sacrificing location or crime rates for more space and cheaper groceries.

Read on to see how we determined the places around Bakersfield that deserve a little bragging rights, or maybe you’re interested in the worst neighborhoods in Bakersfield.

For more California reading, check out:


Table Of Contents: Top Ten | Methodology | Summary | Table


The 10 Cheapest Neighborhoods To Live In Bakersfield For 2024

Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 2,903
Cost Of Living Index: 95 (6th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.1 (cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.009 (2nd cheapest)
More on Castle Ranch: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

9
/10

Population: 3,023
Cost Of Living Index: 110 (2cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.4 (2nd cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.014 (4th cheapest)
More on Haggin Oaks: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

9
/10

Population: 7,064
Cost Of Living Index: 111 (23rd cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.8 (10th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.015 (6th cheapest)
More on Stone Meadows: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

4
/10

Population: 5,739
Cost Of Living Index: 96 (8th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.5 (5th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.025 (30th cheapest)
More on Rexland Acres: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

4
/10

Population: 7,703
Cost Of Living Index: 92 (3rd cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.7 (7th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.03 (35th cheapest)
More on College Heights-Baker Street: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

9
/10

Population: 4,384
Cost Of Living Index: 114 (28th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.8 (11th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.016 (8th cheapest)
More on The Oaks: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 6,222
Cost Of Living Index: 104 (16th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 3.2 (17th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.018 (16th cheapest)
More on Hillcrest: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

9
/10

Population: 3,776
Cost Of Living Index: 113 (26th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.8 (9th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.017 (14th cheapest)
More on Tevis Ranch: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

8.5
/10

Population: 2,611
Cost Of Living Index: 121 (33rd cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.5 (4th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.016 (13th cheapest)
More on Southern Oaks: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

8.5
/10

Population: 7,189
Cost Of Living Index: 129 (38th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.7 (6th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.015 (7th cheapest)
More on Seven Oaks: Data | Real Estate

Methodology: How We Determined The Cheapest Bakersfield Hoods In 2024

To rank the cheapest places to live in Bakersfield, we had to determine what criteria define “cheap” and then apply Saturday Night Science.

Using Census and extrapolated BLS data, we arrived at the following set of criteria:

  • Overall Cost Of Living
  • Rent To Income Ratio
  • Median Home Value To Income Ratio

We then ranked each neighborhood with scores from 1 to 39 in each category, where 1 was the cheapest.

Next, we averaged the rankings for each neighborhood to create a cheap neighborhood index.

And finally, we crowned the neighborhood with the lowest cheapest neighborhood index, the “Cheapest City Neighborhood In Bakersfield.” We’re lookin’ at you, Castle Ranch.

We updated this article for 2024. This is our fourth time ranking the cheapest neighborhoods to live in Bakersfield. Skip to the end to see the list of all the neighborhoods in the city, from cheapest to most expensive.

Summary: Lowest Cost Places To Live In Bakersfield

If you’re measuring the neighborhoods in Bakersfield where prices are low, and it’s cheap to live, this is an accurate list.

The most affordable neighborhoods in Bakersfield are Castle Ranch, Haggin Oaks, Stone Meadows, Rexland Acres, College Heights-Baker Street, The Oaks, Hillcrest, Tevis Ranch, Southern Oaks, and Seven Oaks.

As mentioned earlier, the neighborhoods in Bakersfield aren’t all cheap. Stonegate takes the title of the most expensive neighborhood to live in Bakersfield.

The most expensive neighborhoods in Bakersfield are Stonegate, Downtown, Tyner Homes, Ridgeview Estates, and East Bakersfield.

We ranked the neighborhoods from cheapest to most expensive in the chart below.

For more California reading, check out:

Detailed List Of The Cheapest Neighborhoods To Live In Bakersfield For 2024

Rank Neighborhood Cost Of Living Index
1 Castle Ranch 95
2 Haggin Oaks 110
3 Stone Meadows 111
4 Rexland Acres 96
5 College Heights-Baker Street 92
6 The Oaks 114
7 Hillcrest 104
8 Tevis Ranch 113
9 Southern Oaks 121
10 Seven Oaks 129
11 The Seasons 109
12 Csu Bakersfield 120
13 Stockdale Estates 138
14 Laurelglen 111
15 Terra Vista 121
16 Park Stockdale 102
17 Spice Tract 102
18 Bakersfield Country Club 116
19 Silver Creek 114
20 Eastridge Estates 111
21 Lakeview 94
22 Benton Park 101
23 Amberton 124
24 Rio Bravo 128
25 Stockdale Greens 101
26 Quailwood 105
27 La Cresta-Altavista 108
28 Artisan 121
29 Oleander Sunset 102
30 Riviera-Westchester 113
31 Southgate 96
32 Homaker Park 85
33 Casa Loma 90
34 Sagepointe 104
35 East Bakersfield 93
36 Ridgeview Estates 113
37 Tyner Homes 105
38 Downtown 99
39 Stonegate 123
About Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar has been in the real estate business for almost ten years now. He originally worked for Movoto Real Estate as the director of marketing before founding HomeSnacks.

He believes the key to finding the right place to live comes down to looking at the data, reading about things to do, and, most importantly, checking it out yourself before you move.

If you've been looking for a place to live in the past several years, you've probably stumbled upon his writing already.

You can find out more about him on LinkedIn or his website.