Best PlacesCascade Locks, OR Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Cascade Locks, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Cascade Locks ranks 22,493rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on state infrastructure by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Cascade Locks
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.
Cascade Locks' strengths and weaknesses
Where Cascade Locks ranks high
- State infrastructureBetter than 97% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 94% of towns
- TransitBetter than 92% of towns
- BikingBetter than 92% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 91% of towns
Where Cascade Locks ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,465 a month, better than only 5% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 9% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 10% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 13% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 16% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Cascade Locks
A household needs to earn about $98,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Cascade Locks home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $72,406, 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 Cascade Locks' effective rate of 0.46%, 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 Cascade Locks
Cascade Locks runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Cascade Locks.
Who works in Cascade Locks, and how
Work in Cascade Locks centers on retail trade and hospitality & food. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 78%
- Work from home 17%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Cascade Locks
Cascade Locks has more restaurants and bars per resident than 97% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Cascade Locks and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Cascade Locks, month by month
Cascade Locks sees roughly 112 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 48, with lows near 37. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 48° | 42° | 37° |
| April | 65° | 53° | 42° |
| July | 87° | 71° | 57° |
| October | 67° | 56° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Cascade Locks
Portland International sits about 35 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 9.1 million passengers in 2025, with 117 nonstop destinations.
Cascade Locks 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 Cascade Locks against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Cascade Locks
Is Cascade Locks a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Cascade Locks ranks 22,493rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on state infrastructure, clean air, and transit, and lowest on childcare costs and civic engagement. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Cascade Locks expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $395,115. The overall cost of living runs about 3% below the national average. Set against a $72,406 median income, cost of living beats 40% of towns.
Is Cascade Locks safe?
Cascade Locks is safer than 41% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $419 per resident a year.
Compare Cascade Locks with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Cascade Locks. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Cascade Locks 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.
Cascade Locks detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Cascade Locks: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Cascade Locks: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Cascade Locks: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Cascade Locks: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Cascade Locks 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.