Best PlacesBlaine, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Blaine, 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.
Blaine ranks 10,836th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on biking by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Blaine
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.
Blaine's strengths and weaknesses
Where Blaine ranks high
- BikingBetter than 97% of towns
- TransitBetter than 96% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 96% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 94% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 92% of towns
Where Blaine ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,516 a month, better than only 2% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 4% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 12% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 13% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 26% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Blaine
A household needs to earn about $138,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Blaine home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $84,531, 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 Blaine's effective rate of 0.66%, 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 Blaine
Blaine runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Blaine.
Who works in Blaine, and how
Work in Blaine centers on construction and manufacturing. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 80%
- Work from home 18%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Blaine
Blaine has more restaurants and bars per resident than 98% of towns and more parkland per resident than 99% of towns. The coast is about 3 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Blaine and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Blaine, month by month
Blaine sees roughly 124 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 Blaine
The nearest airport, Bellingham International, is about 16 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Seattle-Tacoma International, about 108 miles away.
Blaine 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 Blaine against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Blaine
Is Blaine a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Blaine ranks 10,836th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on biking, transit, and clean air, 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 Blaine expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $539,633. The overall cost of living runs about 11% above the national average. Set against a $84,531 median income, cost of living beats 39% of towns.
Is Blaine safe?
Blaine is safer than 55% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $481 per resident a year.
Compare Blaine with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Blaine. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Blaine 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.
Blaine detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Blaine: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Blaine: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Blaine: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Blaine: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Blaine 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.