Best Places97301, OR Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood inside ZIP code 97301, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

97301 ranks 20,218th of 33,110 U.S. zip codes on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on biking by a wide margin, and civic engagement ranks lowest.

#20,218
of 33,110 zip codes
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 33,110 zip codes
Your rank
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The best neighborhoods in 97301

Map of the best neighborhoods in the 97301 area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.

97301's strengths and weaknesses

Top 3%Biking
Top 5%Cell coverage
Top 5%Transit
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare 97301 with other zip codes.

Where 97301 ranks high

  • BikingBetter than 98% of zip codes
  • Cell coverageBetter than 97% of zip codes
  • TransitBetter than 96% of zip codes
  • State infrastructureBetter than 96% of zip codes
  • WalkabilityBetter than 95% of zip codes

Where 97301 ranks low

  • Voter turnoutBetter than only 6% of zip codes
  • Healthcare accessBetter than only 6% of zip codes
  • QuietBetter than only 8% of zip codes
  • Disaster safetyBetter than only 12% of zip codes
  • Educational attainmentBetter than only 12% of zip codes

What it costs to buy a home in 97301

A household needs to earn about $86,000 a year to comfortably buy the median 97301 home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $62,016, so buying stretches a typical household.

Income to buy the median home
$86,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$2,000
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $325,812 home
Median rent
$1,314
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$1,661
Property tax$230
Homeowners insurance$109

Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses 97301's effective rate of 0.85%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.

Renting versus buying

At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in 97301

97301 runs younger than the country.

Median age
35
younger than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
14%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.6
near the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1823%
18 to 3428%
35 to 4919%
50 to 6416%
65 and older14%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for 97301.


Who works in 97301, and how

Work in 97301 centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
11%
below the national average
Unemployment
6.8%
above the national average
Job growth
+5.0%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social16%
Retail trade12%
Manufacturing11%
Construction10%
Public administration9%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 74%
  • Work from home 11%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 16%

Life in 97301

97301 has more restaurants and bars per resident than 84% of zip codes and more parkland per resident than 84% of zip codes. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of 97301 and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
448
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 80.0 per 10,000 residents, more than 84% of zip codes
Coffee shops
71
about 12.7 per 10,000 residents, more than 87% of zip codes
Parkland
424 acres
about 7.6 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 84% of zip codes
Open past 10pm
~91
food and drink venues open late, about 16.3 per 10,000 residents, more than 85% of zip codes
Living on campus
1,729
students living in college or university housing

What the weather is like in 97301, month by month

97301 sees roughly 108 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 51, with lows near 35. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January51°42°35°
April65°52°40°
July88°71°55°
October68°54°44°

Flying in and out of 97301

The nearest airport, McNary Field, is about 3 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Portland International, about 48 miles away.

Nearest airport
SLE
McNary Field, about 3 miles
Airport size
Nonprimary
3 nonstop destinations
Average drive
8 min
from the area, with no traffic

97301 measure by measure

Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare 97301 against the other 33,109 zip codes.


Who 97301 suits

Families

Schools land around the 54th percentile.

See the families priority ↑

Remote workers

Internet is fast and widely advertised and 11% already work from home.

See the remote-work priority ↑

Retirees

The weather beats 68% of zip codes.

See the retirees priority ↑


Common questions about living in 97301

Is 97301 a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, 97301 ranks 20,218th of 33,110 zip codes. It scores highest on biking, cell coverage, and transit, and lowest on civic engagement and thin health care access. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is 97301 expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $325,812. The overall cost of living runs about 5% below the national average. Set against a $62,016 median income, cost of living beats 17% of zip codes.

Is 97301 safe?

97301 is safer than 20% of zip codes. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $677 per resident a year.

What is the weather like in 97301?

July highs average about 88 degrees, and January highs near 51 with lows near 35. That works out to about 108 pleasant days a year, more than 68% of zip codes.

Is 97301 good for families?

Schools beat 54% of zip codes, crime safety beats 20%, and childcare runs $1,099 a month.


Compare 97301 with other zip codes


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to 97301. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in 97301 represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.

97301 detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for 97301: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in 97301: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of 97301: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in 97301: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

97301 detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.