Episode 1 · Neighborhood Overview & Local Vibe
Daly City, CA: Commute, Weather, Walk Scores
Daly City is known for its hills, its summer fog and a train that runs to downtown San Francisco without a change. This page shows how much daily life shifts from one part of the city to another, from a walkable old grid around Mission Street to steep high ground, and why your exact address, not the city name, sets your school zone and your weather.
💡 Key Insights & Takeaways
- Riding a bike is the weak leg everywhere, with a Bike Score of 34 for the whole city, because the hills are steep and the bike routes are painted on the road.
- Door to door, the planning range to downtown is 30 to 38 minutes, built from timetables rather than from trips anyone measured.
- BART reported 94.4% of its passengers arriving on time in its most recent published quarter, while SamTrans reported 81.4% on-time running across its system in May 2026.
- September is the warmest month here at 71.8°F, against July at 67.5°F, and the west-facing streets nearer the ocean take more fog and more wind.
- Four elementary and middle school districts reach into Daly City, so the zone line at your exact address, not the city name, sets which school you get.
Daly City's citywide Walk Score of 66 fits none of its own neighborhoods. On August 25, 2026 the old grid around Mission Street scored 89 for walking, and Southern Hills, up on the high ground, scored 33. Both sit inside the same city limits. Downtown San Francisco is 17 scheduled train minutes away, and you do not change trains.
At a glance
These are the three figures people ask about first when they look at Daly City, and every one of them is measured as of 2026-08-25 from the public sources listed near the foot of this page.
| Measure | Value | Basis and date |
|---|---|---|
| Walk Score, whole city | 66 | Citywide score, not a score for any one street; 2026-08-25 |
| Walk Score, best and worst of the eight civic neighborhoods | 89 in Original Daly City, down to 33 in Southern Hills | Neighborhood scores, not address scores; 2026-08-25 |
| Scheduled train time to Montgomery Street | 17 minutes | Published timetable, platform to platform, not a door-to-door trip; 2026-08-25 |
How walkable is Daly City?
That depends on which part of the city you are standing in. Walk Score rates how many everyday errands you can run on foot, from 0 to 100, and Daly City scores 66 across the whole city as of 2026-08-25. No part of the city actually scores 66. The old grid around Mission Street scores 89. Southern Hills, on the high ground at the southern edge, scores 33.
Ranked on that same set of neighborhood scores, the civic eight fall in one order. From most walkable to least, they run Original Daly City, Hillside, Crocker, Westlake, St. Francis Heights, Bayshore, Serramonte and Southern Hills. Only the citywide score and the two ends of the range are published here as numbers. The middle of that list is an order, not a published score.
Getting to a train works differently from getting to the shops. Transit Score measures how much bus and train service sits within walking distance, and the central proxy carries a Transit Score of 68 as of 2026-08-25. Southern Hills does better on trains than it does on shops. Riding a bike is the weak leg everywhere, and the citywide Bike Score is 34.
The reasons are physical rather than political. The hills are steep. Interstate 280 cuts the city and pushes you toward a handful of crossings. The bike routes are painted on the road rather than separated from it.
One caution belongs beside the 89. No Walk Score exists for the exact central corner, so the Original Daly City neighborhood score stands in for it. Every score on this page describes a neighborhood, and none of them describes a single address. Buying one house does not buy you the neighborhood average.
How long does it take to get to work from Daly City?
Montgomery Street is 17 scheduled train minutes from the Daly City station, with no change of trains, as of 2026-08-25. That is the time the timetable promises between two platforms, and it is not the time your morning takes. Add the walk to the platform and the wait for a train, and the planning range door to door is 30 to 38 minutes. That range is built out of timetables rather than out of trips anyone measured.
The airport is closer than the office. SFO is 15 scheduled train minutes away, and that too is a timetable figure rather than a measured journey. Some trains also require a change to reach the airport line.
How well the trip holds up depends on how you reach the platform. BART reported 94.4% of its passengers arriving on time in its most recent published quarter. SamTrans, the county bus operator, reported 81.4% on-time running across its system in May 2026, below its own published goal. If you walk or ride to the station, you are buying the 94.4% number. If a connecting bus sits at each end of your day, you are buying the 81.4% one.
Which schools serve Daly City, and how are they assigned?
The school you get is set by the school zone line drawn around your exact address, not by the city name on the deed.
Four elementary and middle school districts reach into Daly City. They are Jefferson Elementary, Bayshore Elementary, Brisbane Elementary and South San Francisco Unified. Most high school addresses fall to Jefferson Union High School District. Two homes on one block can land on opposite sides of a zone line.
The check is dull, and it is the one that decides the answer. Take the exact address and run it through the controlling district's own zone lookup.
Where can I check schools and crime information for Daly City?
Big Data Realty does not rate schools or neighborhoods. Ratings and reviews are on GreatSchools. The San Mateo County Office of Education's school district locator confirms which district an address is assigned to, and the state publishes official school reports on the California School Dashboard. Check them for the most recent information, because boundaries and reports change every school year.
For crime information, check the most recent reports directly with the Daly City Police Department's crime newsletter.
What is the weather like in Daly City?
September is the warmest month here, at 71.8°F, against July at 67.5°F. That flips what most buyers expect of a summer on this coast. The average high is 72°F and the year brings 19.77 inches of rain, both as of 2026-08-25.
Fog and wind matter more than the monthly average does, and they turn on where you stand rather than on what month it is. The west-facing streets nearer the ocean take more fog, more wind and more salt air than the eastern and bayside parts of the city do. You can read that difference in roofs, in window hardware and in paint long before it reaches a listing.
The monthly figures come from a weather station outside the city limits, because no station sits inside it. Read them as close estimates rather than as local readings.
What is daily life like in Daly City?
Daly City holds 101,424 people at 3.0 people per household, and 60.2% of its homes are lived in by the people who own them, as of 2026-08-25. The middle household here earns $117,911 a year. Houses that stand on their own ground make up 62% of the homes, and nearly 70% of the homes went up between 1940 and 1979. This is a city built after the war, on small lots, out of a short list of repeated house plans.
Shopping sits in three places and the three are not alike. Mission Street at the Top of the Hill is the fine-grained one, with independent restaurants, cafés and everyday services you can reach on foot. Westlake Shopping Center and Serramonte Center are the two big ones, and between them they hold Safeway, Trader Joe's, Target and Home Depot. A certified farmers market runs at Serramonte on Thursdays and Saturdays all year round. The full-size supermarket, the big pharmacy and the hardware store all sit outside a comfortable walk from the central corridor, and that gap is the practical limit behind an otherwise high walk score.
Open space runs from small neighborhood parks out to the edge of the ocean. Gellert, Westlake and Hillside are the larger neighborhood parks, and Marchbank is being rebuilt as a multi-sport park. Mussel Rock Open Space sits on the ocean side, and San Bruno Mountain State and County Park rises to the east.
Building work is live in several places. The Serramonte Del Rey scheme is entitled. Midway Village is in the second phase of its replacement. A funded pedestrian project is under way on John Daly Boulevard.
Four nearby communities trade against Daly City on different things, and the table below compares them one at a time.
This comparison set is current as of 2026-08-25. No price figures appear on this tab by design, because prices belong to the market tab.
| Comparison community | What the comparison is about | Where the trade-off falls |
|---|---|---|
| Broadmoor Village | These are the houses next door, built in the same years | You get similar houses and similar train access |
| Fairmont and Pacific Manor, Pacifica | This is the coast option | You get more direct ocean weather, and you ride a bus to the train instead of walking to it |
| Excelsior, San Francisco | This is the city-side comparison on walking | You get more on foot and more on a bike, and no rapid-train station of its own |
| Visitacion Valley, San Francisco | This is the bayside comparison on getting to a train | You get less ocean fog, and you ride light rail or a bus rather than sitting on a rapid train from the start |
Prices, days on market and what is available right now belong to the Daly City housing market tab. Sizes, ages, ownership and the property tax bill are worked out on the Daly City homes tab.
Common questions
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