Best PlacesBow, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Bow, 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.
Bow ranks 16,944th 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 Bow
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.
Bow's strengths and weaknesses
Where Bow ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 98% of towns
- Household income$114,169 median, better than 91% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 86% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 86% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 86% of towns
Where Bow ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,516 a month, better than only 2% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 3% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 12% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 13% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 25% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Bow
A household needs to earn about $196,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Bow home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $114,169, 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 Bow's effective rate of 0.71%, 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 Bow
Bow runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Bow.
Who works in Bow, and how
Work in Bow centers on education and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 82%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Bow
Bow has more restaurants and bars per resident than 87% of towns. The coast is about 6 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Bow and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Bow, month by month
Bow sees roughly 129 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 77 degrees. January highs sit near 48, with lows near 37. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 48° | 41° | 37° |
| April | 60° | 50° | 43° |
| July | 77° | 64° | 53° |
| October | 60° | 52° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Bow
The nearest airport, Bellingham International, is about 17 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Seattle-Tacoma International, about 76 miles away.
Bow 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 Bow against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Bow
Is Bow a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Bow ranks 16,944th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on clean air, high incomes, 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 Bow expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $758,360. The overall cost of living runs about 20% above the national average. Set against a $114,169 median income, cost of living beats 69% of towns.
Is Bow safe?
Bow is safer than 25% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $543 per resident a year.
Compare Bow with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Bow. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Bow 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.
Bow detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Bow: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Bow: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Bow: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Bow: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Bow 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.