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 neighborhood in Oakland might be more expensive than living in rural California, there are certain neighborhoods that are definitely cheaper.
What exactly are those Oakland 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 Oakland are the cheapest using Saturday Night Science.
142 cost of living index
129 cost of living index
144 cost of living index
156 cost of living index
168 cost of living index
121 cost of living index
166 cost of living index
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155 cost of living index
Located in
Alameda County, California
Fremont is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. It was incorporated on January 23, 1956, from the merger of five smaller communities: Centerville, Niles, Irvington, Mission San Jose, and Warm Springs. The city is named after John C. Frmont, an American explorer and the first Republican presidential candidate in 1856.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers | Compare
123 cost of living index
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is California’s statewide median.
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: How we determined the cheapest Oakland hoods in 2026
To rank the cheapest places to live in Oakland, 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 129 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 Oakland.” We’re lookin’ at you, Golf Links.
We updated this article for 2026. Skip to the end to see the list of all the neighborhoods in the city, from cheapest to most expensive.
The full plate
Detailed list of the cheapest neighborhoods to live in Oakland for 2026
Click any column to sort. Search by neighborhood name.
| Rank | Neighborhood | Cost Of Living Index |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Golf Links | 142 |
| 2 | Acorn-Acorn Industrial | 129 |
| 3 | Old City-Produce And Waterfront | 144 |
| 4 | Caballo Hills | 156 |
| 5 | Skyline-Hillcrest Estates | 168 |
| 6 | Produce And Waterfront | 121 |
| 7 | Sequoyah | 166 |
| 8 | South Prescott | 175 |
| 9 | Fremont | 155 |
| 10 | Bancroft Business-Havenscourt | 123 |
| 11 | Fairfax Business-Wentworth-Holland | 127 |
| 12 | Las Palmas | 153 |
| 13 | Eastmont Hills | 173 |
| 14 | Trestle Glen | 217 |
| 15 | Forestland | 219 |
| 16 | South Stonehurst | 150 |
| 17 | Fairfax | 162 |
| 18 | Chabot Park | 180 |
| 19 | Saint Elizabeth | 122 |
| 20 | Grand Lake | 173 |
| 21 | Montclair Business | 232 |
| 22 | Peralta-Hacienda | 135 |
| 22 | Hiller Highlands | 248 |
| 24 | Brookfield Village | 147 |
| 25 | Lakeshore | 221 |
| 26 | Oakmore | 220 |
| 27 | Adams Point | 168 |
| 28 | Shepherd Canyon | 228 |
| 29 | Sheffield Village | 195 |
| 30 | Upper Laurel | 159 |
| 31 | Oakland Airport | 147 |
| 31 | Arroyo Viejo | 146 |
| 33 | Claremont | 236 |
| 34 | Mills College | 174 |
| 35 | Bella Vista | 176 |
| 36 | Toler Heights | 162 |
| 37 | Woodminster | 227 |
| 37 | Crestmont | 227 |
| 39 | Foothill Square | 159 |
| 40 | Montclair | 261 |
| 41 | Piedmont Pines | 234 |
| 42 | Merriwood | 240 |
| 43 | Prescott | 175 |
| 44 | Sausal Creek | 164 |
| 45 | Upper Dimond | 198 |
| 46 | Upper Peralta Creek-Bartlett | 139 |
| 46 | Lake Merritt | 192 |
| 48 | Joaquin Miller Park | 234 |
| 48 | Waverly | 166 |
| 50 | Upper Rockridge | 257 |
| 51 | Durant Manor | 168 |
| 52 | Redwood Heights | 194 |
| 53 | Jefferson | 159 |
| 54 | Mountain View Cemetery | 220 |
| 54 | Clawson | 169 |
| 56 | Glenview | 212 |
| 57 | Maxwell Park | 179 |
| 57 | Glen Highlands | 237 |
| 59 | Hegenberger | 143 |
| 60 | Reservoir Hill-Meadow Brook | 132 |
| 60 | Rockridge | 264 |
| 62 | South Kennedy Tract | 185 |
| 62 | Arrowhead Marsh | 175 |
| 64 | Columbia Gardens | 140 |
| 65 | Piedmont | 275 |
| 65 | School | 161 |
| 67 | North Stonehurst | 148 |
| 68 | Woodland | 136 |
| 69 | Panoramic Hill | 296 |
| 70 | Lynn-Highland Park | 146 |
| 70 | Melrose | 146 |
| 72 | Oakland Ave-Harrison St | 167 |
| 73 | Iveywood | 148 |
| 74 | Eastmont | 148 |
| 75 | Coliseum Industrial | 142 |
| 76 | Piedmont Avenue | 185 |
| 77 | Bartlett | 152 |
| 78 | Dimond | 165 |
| 79 | Frick | 162 |
| 80 | Seminary | 148 |
| 81 | Cleveland Heights | 199 |
| 82 | Lockwood Tevis | 139 |
| 83 | Longfellow | 190 |
| 84 | Sobrante Park | 159 |
| 85 | Laurel | 149 |
| 85 | Tuxedo | 160 |
| 87 | Millsmont | 171 |
| 88 | Fitchburg | 140 |
| 89 | Webster | 145 |
| 89 | Merritt | 165 |
| 89 | Castlemont | 141 |
| 89 | Ivy Hill | 177 |
| 93 | Golden Gate | 189 |
| 94 | Clinton | 164 |
| 94 | Santa Fe | 191 |
| 96 | Bushrod | 207 |
| 96 | Gaskill | 196 |
| 98 | Cox | 148 |
| 99 | Allendale | 166 |
| 100 | Harrington | 155 |
Source: U.S. Census ACS 2020-2024. All 129 Oakland neighborhoods.
Summary
Summary: Lowest cost places to live in Oakland
If you’re measuring the neighborhoods in Oakland where prices are low, and it’s cheap to live, this is an accurate list.
The most affordable neighborhoods in Oakland are Golf Links, Acorn-Acorn Industrial, Old City-Produce And Waterfront, Caballo Hills, Skyline-Hillcrest Estates, Produce And Waterfront, Sequoyah, South Prescott, Fremont, and Bancroft Business-Havenscourt.
As mentioned earlier, the neighborhoods in Oakland aren’t all cheap. Lakewide takes the title of the most expensive neighborhood to live in Oakland.
We ranked the neighborhoods from cheapest to most expensive in the chart below. Not sold on California? Take the two-minute Find Your Place quiz and see which state actually fits you.
Questions and answers
Cheapest Neighborhoods In Oakland FAQs
What is the cheapest neighborhood in Oakland?
Golf Links is the cheapest neighborhood in Oakland for 2026. It posts the best combination of overall cost of living, rent against income, and home prices against income. Acorn-Acorn Industrial and Old City-Produce And Waterfront are next.
What are the cheapest neighborhoods in Oakland?
The cheapest neighborhoods in Oakland are Golf Links, Acorn-Acorn Industrial, Old City-Produce And Waterfront, Caballo Hills, Skyline-Hillcrest Estates, Produce And Waterfront, Sequoyah, South Prescott, Fremont, and Bancroft Business-Havenscourt. We ranked all 129 neighborhoods in the city.
How do you decide which neighborhoods are cheapest?
Three measures: an overall cost of living index, rent-to-income, and home-value-to-income, all from Census tract data. Scoring costs against local incomes keeps one luxury tower from skewing the math.
Is a cheap neighborhood a bad neighborhood?
Not necessarily — this ranking measures what things cost relative to income, nothing else. Check our safest neighborhoods in Oakland ranking before you sign a lease, because cheap and safe are separate questions.
What is the most expensive neighborhood in Oakland?
Lakewide lands at the expensive end of the 129 neighborhoods we scored. If your budget disagrees with it, the rest of the list runs cheaper.
