Best PlacesBirch Bay, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Birch Bay, 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.
Birch Bay ranks 5,794th 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 Birch Bay
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.
Birch Bay's strengths and weaknesses
Where Birch Bay ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 96% of towns
- TransitBetter than 95% of towns
- BikingBetter than 93% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 91% of towns
- QuietBetter than 87% of towns
Where Birch Bay ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,516 a month, better than only 2% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 8% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 13% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 28% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 29% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Birch Bay
A household needs to earn about $136,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Birch Bay home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $94,340, 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 Birch Bay's effective rate of 0.62%, 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 Birch Bay
Birch Bay runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Birch Bay.
Who works in Birch Bay, and how
Work in Birch Bay centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 78%
- Work from home 19%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Birch Bay
Birch Bay has more restaurants and bars per resident than 81% of towns and more parkland per resident than 98% of towns. The coast is about 2 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Birch Bay and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Birch Bay, month by month
Birch Bay sees roughly 125 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 Birch Bay
The nearest airport, Bellingham International, is about 14 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Seattle-Tacoma International, about 104 miles away.
Birch Bay 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 Birch Bay against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Birch Bay
Is Birch Bay a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Birch Bay ranks 5,794th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on clean air, transit, and biking, 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 Birch Bay expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $533,005. The overall cost of living runs about 10% above the national average. Set against a $94,340 median income, cost of living beats 60% of towns.
Is Birch Bay safe?
Yes, Birch Bay is safer than 75% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $311 per resident a year.
Compare Birch Bay with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Birch Bay. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Birch Bay 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.
Birch Bay detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Birch Bay: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Birch Bay: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Birch Bay: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Birch Bay: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Birch Bay 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.