Best PlacesBremerton, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Bremerton metro, 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.
Photo by Kswalthall, CC BY-SA 4.0, via wiki
Bremerton ranks 44th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. Paychecks stretch further here than almost anywhere else: the median household brings in $111,494, wages outrun the cost of living, and an educated workforce ranks near the top of the country. The main drawbacks are cell coverage, long commutes, and state infrastructure.
The best neighborhoods in the Bremerton 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 Bremerton
The towns and districts of the Bremerton 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.
Bainbridge Island
More adults hold degrees, incomes run higher, and local pay stretches further.
Poulsbo
More residents vote, though fewer households have young kids.
Kingston, Suquamish & Indianola
Tree cover is thicker and it is quieter.
Silverdale & Bangor Base
Commutes are shorter, though biking is worse.
Seabeck
Prices have run up less.
Port Orchard
Crime runs lower and fewer homes sit empty.
Downtown Bremerton
Transit reaches more jobs and streets are more walkable.
Scores across Bremerton run from about the 22nd to the 99th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Bremerton's strengths and weaknesses
Bremerton ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Clean air is the standout, in the top 2% of metro areas. High incomes and quiet follow.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Cell coverage, long commutes, and state infrastructure hold the score down. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Bremerton ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 98% of metro areas
- Household income$111,494 median, better than 95% of metro areas
- QuietBetter than 94% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than 89% of metro areas
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 87% of metro areas
Where Bremerton ranks low
- Cell coverageBetter than only 7% of metro areas
- Short commute28.4 minutes each way, better than only 8% of metro areas
- State infrastructureBetter than only 10% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$1,327 a month, better than only 13% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 21% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Bremerton
A household needs to earn about $152,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Bremerton home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $111,494, 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 Bremerton's effective rate of 0.73%, 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 Bremerton
Bremerton'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 Bremerton.
Who works in Bremerton, and how
Work in Bremerton centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 72%
- Work from home 17%
- Transit, walk, or bike 11%
Life in Bremerton
Bremerton has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas and less parkland per resident than most metro areas. The coast is about 14 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Bremerton and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Bremerton growing, and who is moving in?
Bremerton has grown about 11% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Seattle, WA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Bremerton go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Bremerton, month by month
Bremerton sees roughly 111 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 81 degrees. January highs sit near 47, with lows near 33. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 47° | 40° | 33° |
| April | 61° | 48° | 37° |
| July | 81° | 65° | 50° |
| October | 62° | 51° | 41° |
Flying in and out of Bremerton
The nearest airport, Boeing Field/King County International, is about 17 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Seattle-Tacoma International, about 19 miles away.
Bremerton 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 Bremerton against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Bremerton suits
Families
Schools land around the 53rd percentile and crime safety beats 65%.
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 87% of metro areas and 17% already work from home.
Retirees
The weather beats 67% of metro areas and it is quieter than 94%.
Common questions about living in Bremerton
Is Bremerton a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Bremerton ranks 44th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on clean air, high incomes, and quiet, and lowest on cell coverage and long commutes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Bremerton expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $587,781. The overall cost of living runs about 8% above the national average. Set against a $111,494 median income, cost of living beats 87% of metro areas.
Is Bremerton safe?
Yes, Bremerton is safer than 65% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $416 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Bremerton?
July highs average about 81 degrees, and January highs near 47 with lows near 33. That works out to about 111 pleasant days a year, more than 67% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Bremerton?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Bainbridge Island, Poulsbo, and Kingston, Suquamish & Indianola. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Bremerton good for families?
Schools beat 53% of metro areas, crime safety beats 65%, and childcare runs $1,327 a month.
Is Bremerton good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 87% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 56% of metro areas. About 17% of workers already work from home.
Compare Bremerton with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Bremerton. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Bremerton 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.
Bremerton detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Bremerton: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Bremerton: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Bremerton: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Bremerton: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Bremerton 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.