Best PlacesBurien, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Burien, 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.
Burien ranks 1,057th of 2,098 U.S. cities 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 Burien
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.
Burien's strengths and weaknesses
Where Burien ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 99% of cities
- WalkabilityBetter than 91% of cities
- TransitBetter than 91% of cities
- BikingBetter than 88% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 83% of cities
Where Burien ranks low
- Cheap childcare$2,022 a month, better than only 3% of cities
- Local economyBetter than only 7% of cities
- Crime safetyBetter than only 7% of cities
- State infrastructureBetter than only 9% of cities
- QuietBetter than only 14% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Burien
A household needs to earn about $171,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Burien home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $104,826, 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 Burien's effective rate of 0.84%, 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 Burien
Burien'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 Burien.
Who works in Burien, and how
Work in Burien centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 70%
- Work from home 20%
- Transit, walk, or bike 10%
Life in Burien
Burien has more restaurants and bars per resident than 85% of cities and more parkland per resident than 93% of cities. The coast is about 2 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Burien and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Burien, month by month
Burien sees roughly 128 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 81 degrees. January highs sit near 49, with lows near 36. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 49° | 42° | 36° |
| April | 61° | 51° | 42° |
| July | 81° | 67° | 56° |
| October | 63° | 53° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Burien
Seattle-Tacoma International sits about 2 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 25.4 million passengers in 2025, with 172 nonstop destinations.
Burien 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 Burien against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Burien suits
Common questions about living in Burien
Is Burien a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Burien ranks 1,057th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on clean air, walkability, and transit, and lowest on childcare costs and a weak job market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Burien expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $652,052. The overall cost of living runs about 18% above the national average. Set against a $104,826 median income, cost of living beats 45% of cities.
Is Burien safe?
Burien is safer than 7% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $699 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Burien?
July highs average about 81 degrees, and January highs near 49 with lows near 36. That works out to about 128 pleasant days a year, more than 73% of cities.
Is Burien good for families?
Schools beat 44% of cities, crime safety beats 7%, and childcare runs $2,022 a month.
Compare Burien with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Burien. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Burien 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.
Burien detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Burien: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Burien: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Burien: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Burien: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Burien 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.