LIST: California's Best Big Cities to Call Home

When it comes to California, plenty of people seems to want to live here. It makes sense. The weather is nice year round and there are beaches and celebrities. It's no wonder that three California cities were named in the top-10 best large cities to live in by WalletHub.

Despite their soaring housing prices, San Francisco topped the list, followed by San Jose (No. 6) and San Diego (No. 8).

WalleHub, the financial advice website, based the rankings on criteria such as best places for families, diversity, parks, education, traffic, overall health rates, the job market, weather, taxes, and home and rent prices.

“I think what’s interesting for this report is so many categories are very much linked together,” said WalletHub analyst Jill Gonzalez.

Even though you may have to sell a kidney to be able to afford to live in these cities, WalletHub says a robust economy needs quality education, job growth and a tax base to go with it.

“You get what you pay for,” she said.

What about other Calfornia big cities? Oakland, the city across the bay from San Francisco came in at No. 11.
California's capitol, Sacramento, was No. 20. The home of Disneyland, Anaheim was 26th. Long Beach rounds out the top 30 at No. 30.

But where was Los Angeles? Surely the nation's second largest city made a good showing on the list? Alas, even the allure of celebrities couldn't win out against the traffic.

The city of Angels made the list at the disappointingly low spot of No. 38.

--Photo via Shutterstock