As more Californians leave big metropolitan regions for other parts of the state, small cities are thriving. However, even tiny cities face challenges, most notably the tendency to become increasingly less inexpensive, which was formerly one of their main draws.

In a recent WalletHub investigation, the personal finance company assessed communities with populations ranging from 25,000 to 100,000 across the country, and California fared poorly.

Isla Vista, just north of Santa Barbara and home to UC Santa Barbara, finished worst out of 1,318 small communities. It earned some of the poorest affordability and economic health scores of any city ranked, with a high poverty rate and one of the lowest homeownership rates.

To compile the rankings, WalletHub looked at 45 different variables, including housing expenses, job growth, and the number of eateries per capita.

Wasco, located northwest of Bakersfield and home to approximately 25,000 people, scored third worst on the list. It ranked somewhat higher in affordability but lower in categories like safety and quality of life.

Individual measurements revealed that Bell Gardens, West Hollywood, and Isla Vista had the lowest affordability scores among the cities evaluated in the United States. Maywood, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, and Huntington Park were also in the bottom ten, with numerous Los Angeles County communities among the worst performers.

Beaumont got the greatest affordability score of any California city, yet it still ranked 302 out of 1,318.

Bay Point and Adelanto were both in the bottom ten of the state’s “quality of life” rankings, which included characteristics such as travel time, parks per capita, and weekly work hours.

Los Altos received the highest overall rating on the list of California cities. Despite its modest population of approximately 31,000 people, its proximity to major cities such as San Francisco and San Jose improved several of its rankings. The city scored poor in affordability but excellent in other areas such as education, health, and safety.

Palo Alto, Livermore, and Saratoga all ranked high on the list.

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