Best PlacesBothell, WA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Bothell, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages hide a wide spread here, so the area matters as much as the address. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Bothell ranks 160th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on population health by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.

#160
of 2,098 cities
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 2,098 cities
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Bothell

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Bothell 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.

The best areas in Bothell

The parts of Bothell, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first.

#1

Canyon Creek-39th SE, Fitzgerald-35th SE & Hollyhills-Pioneer Hls-Morningside

WorseBetter
98th nationally
#2

Thrasher's Corner-Red Hawk

WorseBetter
95th nationally
#3

Seattle Hill-Silver Firs

WorseBetter
95th nationally
#4

Queensboro-Brentwood-Crystal Spgs, Canyon Park & Maywood-Beckstrom Hill

WorseBetter
89th nationally
#5

North Creek & Martha Lake

WorseBetter
88th nationally
#6

Downtown Riverfront-190th & Waynita-Simonds-Norway Hill

WorseBetter
84th nationally
#7

Westhill

WorseBetter
83rd nationally
#8

Brickyard Road-Queensgate & Wedge

WorseBetter
82nd nationally

Scores across Bothell run from about the 40th to the 100th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.


Bothell's strengths and weaknesses

Top 3%Population health
Top 3%Clean air
Top 10%High incomes
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Bothell with other cities.

Where Bothell ranks high

  • Health outlookBetter than 98% of cities
  • Air qualityBetter than 98% of cities
  • Household income$158,105 median, better than 93% of cities
  • Educational attainmentBetter than 87% of cities
  • Heat safetyBetter than 87% of cities

Where Bothell ranks low

  • Cheap childcare$1,699 a month, better than only 7% of cities
  • State infrastructureBetter than only 9% of cities
  • Housing crash safetyBetter than only 12% of cities
  • Disaster safetyBetter than only 28% of cities
  • Short commute29.0 minutes each way, better than only 30% of cities

What it costs to buy a home in Bothell

A household needs to earn about $235,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Bothell home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $158,105, so buying stretches a typical household.

Income to buy the median home
$235,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$5,474
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $904,349 home
Median rent
$2,625
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$4,611
Property tax$561
Homeowners insurance$301

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 Bothell's effective rate of 0.74%, 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.

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

Who lives in Bothell

Bothell runs younger than the country.

Median age
39
younger than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
13%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.7
near the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1823%
18 to 3423%
35 to 4921%
50 to 6419%
65 and older14%

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


Who works in Bothell, and how

Work in Bothell centers on professional & technical and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
33%
above the national average
Unemployment
4.3%
about the national average
Job growth
+8.2%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Professional & technical20%
Retail trade12%
Health care & social12%
Manufacturing10%
Education8%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 61%
  • Work from home 33%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 6%

Life in Bothell

Bothell has more parkland per resident than 84% of cities. The coast is about 13 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Bothell and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
221
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 31.1 per 10,000 residents, more than 64% of cities
Coffee shops
49
about 6.9 per 10,000 residents, more than 84% of cities
Parkland
304 acres
about 4.3 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 84% of cities
Open past 10pm
~66
food and drink venues open late, about 9.3 per 10,000 residents, more than 63% of cities
To the coast
13 min
drive to the nearest ocean beaches

What the weather is like in Bothell, month by month

Bothell sees roughly 136 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 76 degrees. January highs sit near 48, with lows near 36. 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
January48°42°36°
April59°50°42°
July76°64°55°
October60°52°46°

Flying in and out of Bothell

The nearest airport, Seattle Paine Field International, is about 9 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Seattle-Tacoma International, about 24 miles away.

Nearest airport
PAE
Seattle Paine Field International, about 9 miles
Airport size
Nonhub
177th-busiest in the US, 21 nonstop destinations
Average drive
13 min
from the area, with no traffic

Bothell 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 Bothell against the other 2,097 cities.


Who Bothell suits

Families

Schools beat 74% of cities.

See the families priority ↑

Remote workers

Cost of living against local pay beats 83% of cities, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 33% already work from home.

See the remote-work priority ↑

Retirees

The weather beats 78% of cities.

See the retirees priority ↑


Common questions about living in Bothell

Is Bothell a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Bothell ranks 160th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on population health, clean air, and high incomes, and lowest on childcare costs and state infrastructure. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Bothell expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $904,349. The overall cost of living runs about 26% above the national average. Set against a $158,105 median income, cost of living beats 83% of cities.

Is Bothell safe?

Bothell is safer than 51% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $424 per resident a year.

What is the weather like in Bothell?

July highs average about 76 degrees, and January highs near 48 with lows near 36. That works out to about 136 pleasant days a year, more than 78% of cities.

What are the best neighborhoods in Bothell?

Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Canyon Creek-39th SE, Fitzgerald-35th SE & Hollyhills-Pioneer Hls-Morningside, Thrasher's Corner-Red Hawk, and Seattle Hill-Silver Firs. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.


Compare Bothell with other cities


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Bothell. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Bothell 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.

Bothell detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

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

Bothell 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.