Best PlacesAcme, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Acme, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Acme ranks 28,870th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Acme
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.
Acme's strengths and weaknesses
Where Acme ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 97% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 86% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 83% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 115 pleasant days a year, better than 78% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 75% of towns
Where Acme ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,516 a month, better than only 2% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 6% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 12% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 13% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Acme
A household needs to earn about $110,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Acme home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $86,667, so buying stretches a typical household.
Where the monthly payment goes
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 Acme's effective rate of 0.69%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Acme
Acme runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Acme.
Who works in Acme, and how
Work in Acme centers on construction and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 80%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 10%
Life in Acme
The coast is about 32 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Acme, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Acme, month by month
Acme sees roughly 115 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 76 degrees. January highs sit near 48, with lows near 33. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 48° | 40° | 33° |
| April | 60° | 50° | 40° |
| July | 76° | 65° | 54° |
| October | 61° | 51° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Acme
The nearest airport, Bellingham International, is about 17 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Seattle-Tacoma International, about 87 miles away.
Acme 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 Acme against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Acme
Is Acme a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Acme ranks 28,870th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on clean air, low taxes, and population health, and lowest on childcare costs and internet speeds. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Acme expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $427,700. The overall cost of living runs about 20% above the national average. Set against a $86,667 median income, cost of living beats 28% of towns.
Is Acme safe?
Acme is safer than 18% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $597 per resident a year.
Compare Acme with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Acme. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Acme 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.
Acme detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Acme: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Acme: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Acme: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Acme: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Acme detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- 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.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.