Best PlacesBrentwood, Washington, DC Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Brentwood, Washington, 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.

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Brentwood, Washington ranks 2,860th of 5,983 U.S. neighborhoods on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on state infrastructure by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.

#2,860
of 5,983 neighborhoods
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 5,983 neighborhoods
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Brentwood, Washington

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Brentwood, Washington area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
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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.

Brentwood, Washington's strengths and weaknesses

Top 1%State infrastructure
Top 3%Low disaster risk
Top 10%Low property taxes
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Brentwood, Washington with other neighborhoods.

Where Brentwood, Washington ranks high

  • State infrastructureBetter than 99% of neighborhoods
  • Disaster safetyBetter than 97% of neighborhoods
  • Low property taxBetter than 92% of neighborhoods
  • State fiscal healthBetter than 83% of neighborhoods
  • WalkabilityBetter than 83% of neighborhoods

Where Brentwood, Washington ranks low

  • Cheap childcare$2,143 a month, better than only 3% of neighborhoods
  • Crime safetyBetter than only 12% of neighborhoods
  • TransitBetter than only 13% of neighborhoods
  • Short commute31.1 minutes each way, better than only 15% of neighborhoods
  • QuietBetter than only 18% of neighborhoods

What it costs to buy a home in Brentwood, Washington

A household needs to earn about $174,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Brentwood, Washington home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $105,619, so buying stretches a typical household.

Income to buy the median home
$174,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$4,050
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $692,045 home
Median rent
$1,815
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$3,529
Property tax$291
Homeowners insurance$231

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 Brentwood, Washington's effective rate of 0.51%, 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 Brentwood, Washington

Brentwood, Washington runs younger than the country, and households here run smaller than average.

Median age
37
younger than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
13%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
1.9
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1816%
18 to 3433%
35 to 4922%
50 to 6416%
65 and older13%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Brentwood, Washington.


Who works in Brentwood, Washington, and how

Work in Brentwood, Washington centers on public administration and professional & technical. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
34%
above the national average
Unemployment
8.0%
above the national average
Job growth
+10.2%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Public administration20%
Professional & technical20%
Other services9%
Health care & social8%
Education8%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 35%
  • Work from home 34%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 31%

Life in Brentwood, Washington

Brentwood, Washington has more restaurants and bars per resident than 84% of neighborhoods and more parkland per resident than 93% of neighborhoods. The coast is about 28 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Brentwood, Washington and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
385
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 129.4 per 10,000 residents, more than 84% of neighborhoods
Coffee shops
35
about 11.8 per 10,000 residents, more than 81% of neighborhoods
Parkland
659 acres
about 22.2 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 93% of neighborhoods
Open past 10pm
~55
food and drink venues open late, about 18.6 per 10,000 residents, more than 62% of neighborhoods
Living on campus
985
students living in college or university housing
To the coast
28 min
drive to the nearest ocean beaches

What the weather is like in Brentwood, Washington, month by month

Brentwood, Washington sees roughly 67 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 49, with lows near 30. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January49°38°30°
April72°59°48°
July92°81°73°
October74°63°53°

Flying in and out of Brentwood, Washington

Ronald Reagan Washington Ntl sits about 5 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 12.0 million passengers in 2025, with 128 nonstop destinations.

Nearest airport
DCA
Ronald Reagan Washington Ntl, about 5 miles
Airport size
Large hub
28th-busiest in the US, 128 nonstop destinations
Average drive
8 min
from the area, with no traffic

Brentwood, Washington 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 Brentwood, Washington against the other 5,982 neighborhoods.


Who Brentwood, Washington suits

Families

Schools land around the 34th percentile.

See the families priority ↑

Remote workers

34% already work from home.

See the remote-work priority ↑

Retirees

Health care access beats 60%.

See the retirees priority ↑


Common questions about living in Brentwood, Washington

Is Brentwood, Washington a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Brentwood, Washington ranks 2,860th of 5,983 neighborhoods. It scores highest on state infrastructure, low disaster risk, and low property taxes, and lowest on childcare costs and crime. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Brentwood, Washington expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $692,045. The overall cost of living runs about 38% above the national average. Set against a $105,619 median income, cost of living beats 50% of neighborhoods.

Is Brentwood, Washington safe?

Brentwood, Washington is safer than 12% of neighborhoods. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $1,157 per resident a year.

What is the weather like in Brentwood, Washington?

July highs average about 92 degrees, and January highs near 49 with lows near 30. That works out to about 67 pleasant days a year, more than 20% of neighborhoods.

Is Brentwood, Washington good for families?

Schools beat 34% of neighborhoods, crime safety beats 12%, and childcare runs $2,143 a month.


Compare Brentwood, Washington with other neighborhoods


Sources and methodology

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

Brentwood, Washington detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

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

Brentwood, Washington 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.