Best PlacesCathlamet, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Cathlamet, 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.
Cathlamet ranks 24,469th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and disaster risk is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Cathlamet
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.
Cathlamet's strengths and weaknesses
Where Cathlamet ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 96% of towns
- TransitBetter than 91% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 86% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than 84% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 83% of towns
Where Cathlamet ranks low
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 3% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,375 a month, better than only 7% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 11% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 13% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 27% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Cathlamet
A household needs to earn about $110,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Cathlamet home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $70,441, 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 Cathlamet's effective rate of 0.59%, 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 Cathlamet
Cathlamet 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 Cathlamet.
Who works in Cathlamet, and how
Work in Cathlamet centers on construction and health care & social. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 72%
- Work from home 15%
- Transit, walk, or bike 13%
Life in Cathlamet
Cathlamet has more restaurants and bars per resident than 95% of towns. The coast is about 33 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Cathlamet and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Cathlamet, month by month
Cathlamet sees roughly 93 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 degrees. January highs sit near 49, with lows near 35. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 49° | 41° | 35° |
| April | 64° | 51° | 40° |
| July | 82° | 66° | 55° |
| October | 65° | 53° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Cathlamet
Portland International sits about 56 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 9.1 million passengers in 2025, with 117 nonstop destinations.
Cathlamet 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 Cathlamet against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Cathlamet
Is Cathlamet a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Cathlamet ranks 24,469th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on clean air, transit, and low taxes, and lowest on disaster risk and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Cathlamet expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $431,265. The overall cost of living runs about 5% below the national average. Set against a $70,441 median income, cost of living beats 36% of towns.
Is Cathlamet safe?
Yes, Cathlamet is safer than 74% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $307 per resident a year.
Compare Cathlamet with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Cathlamet. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Cathlamet 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.
Cathlamet detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Cathlamet: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Cathlamet: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Cathlamet: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Cathlamet: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Cathlamet 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.