Best PlacesBellingham, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Bellingham metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Distance to the water drives a lot of the difference between one part and the next. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by mattofwashington ( talk ), CC BY-SA 3.0, via commons
Bellingham ranks 100th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 10 minutes away. Its strengths are clean air and transit. The cost shows up in childcare costs, an overheated housing market, and state infrastructure.
The best neighborhoods in the Bellingham metro
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.
The best areas in Bellingham
The towns and districts of the Bellingham metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Lynden
More households have young kids, prices have run up less, and more residents vote.
Sudden Valley
Tree cover is thicker, though more homes sit empty.
Birch Bay, Blaine & Custer
It is quieter, though biking is worse.
Downtown Bellingham
More adults hold degrees and streets are more walkable.
Ferndale
Crime runs lower, though transit reaches fewer jobs.
Everson, Maple Falls & Sumas
Commutes are longer and health care is harder to reach.
Bellingham shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 10% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Bellingham's strengths and weaknesses
Bellingham lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Clean air is the standout, in the top 1% of metro areas. Transit and population health follow.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Childcare costs, an overheated housing market, and state infrastructure hold the score down. Cost swings more from one part of Bellingham to another than it does between Bellingham and its neighbors, which the map below shows.
Where Bellingham ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 99% of metro areas
- TransitBetter than 92% of metro areas
- Health outlookBetter than 89% of metro areas
- Heat safetyBetter than 88% of metro areas
- BikingBetter than 87% of metro areas
Where Bellingham ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,516 a month, better than only 5% of metro areas
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 7% of metro areas
- State infrastructureBetter than only 10% of metro areas
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 19% of metro areas
- Cell coverageBetter than only 22% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Bellingham
A household needs to earn about $150,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Bellingham home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $87,741, 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 Bellingham's effective rate of 0.67%, 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 Bellingham
Bellingham's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Bellingham.
Who works in Bellingham, and how
Work in Bellingham centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 75%
- Work from home 15%
- Transit, walk, or bike 10%
Life in Bellingham
Bellingham has more restaurants and bars per resident than 86% of metro areas and more parkland per resident than 96% of metro areas. The coast is about 10 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Bellingham and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Bellingham growing, and who is moving in?
Bellingham has grown about 13% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Seattle, WA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Bellingham go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Bellingham, month by month
Bellingham sees roughly 122 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 Bellingham
The nearest airport, Bellingham International, is about 4 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Seattle-Tacoma International, about 91 miles away.
Bellingham 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 Bellingham against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Bellingham suits
Families
Schools land around the 49th percentile and crime safety beats 60%.
Retirees
The weather beats 74% of metro areas and it is quieter than 87%.
Common questions about living in Bellingham
Is Bellingham a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Bellingham ranks 100th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on clean air, transit, and population health, and lowest on childcare costs and an overheated housing market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Bellingham expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $584,045. The overall cost of living runs about 12% above the national average. Set against a $87,741 median income, cost of living beats 19% of metro areas.
Is Bellingham safe?
Yes, Bellingham is safer than 60% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $432 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Bellingham?
July highs average about 76 degrees, and January highs near 48 with lows near 33. That works out to about 122 pleasant days a year, more than 74% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Bellingham?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Lynden, Sudden Valley, and Birch Bay, Blaine & Custer. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Bellingham good for families?
Schools beat 49% of metro areas, crime safety beats 60%, and childcare runs $1,516 a month.
Is Bellingham good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 19% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 46% of metro areas. About 15% of workers already work from home.
Compare Bellingham with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Bellingham. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Bellingham 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.
Bellingham detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Bellingham: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Bellingham: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Bellingham: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Bellingham: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Bellingham 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.