Best PlacesCentralia, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Centralia, 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.
Centralia ranks 28,537th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on walkability by a wide margin, and thin health care access ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Centralia
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.
Centralia's strengths and weaknesses
Where Centralia ranks high
- WalkabilityBetter than 96% of towns
- TransitBetter than 93% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 93% of towns
- BikingBetter than 92% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than 91% of towns
Where Centralia ranks low
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 6% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 6% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 7% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,375 a month, better than only 7% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 8% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Centralia
A household needs to earn about $88,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Centralia home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $65,885, 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 Centralia's effective rate of 0.74%, 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 Centralia
Centralia 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 Centralia.
Who works in Centralia, and how
Work in Centralia 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 87%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Centralia
Centralia has more restaurants and bars per resident than 80% of towns and more parkland per resident than 96% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Centralia and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Centralia, month by month
Centralia sees roughly 115 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 81 degrees. January highs sit near 48, with lows near 37. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 48° | 41° | 37° |
| April | 61° | 50° | 41° |
| July | 81° | 66° | 54° |
| October | 63° | 51° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Centralia
Seattle-Tacoma International sits about 59 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 25.4 million passengers in 2025, with 172 nonstop destinations.
Centralia 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 Centralia against the other 50,332 towns.
Who Centralia suits
Families
Schools land around the 31st percentile and crime safety beats 67%.
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 8% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Centralia
Is Centralia a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Centralia ranks 28,537th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on walkability, transit, and clean air, and lowest on thin health care access and an overheated housing market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Centralia expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $339,629. The overall cost of living runs about 1% above the national average. Set against a $65,885 median income, cost of living beats 20% of towns.
Is Centralia safe?
Yes, Centralia is safer than 67% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $363 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Centralia?
July highs average about 81 degrees, and January highs near 48 with lows near 37. That works out to about 115 pleasant days a year, more than 77% of towns.
Is Centralia good for families?
Schools beat 31% of towns, crime safety beats 67%, and childcare runs $1,375 a month.
Compare Centralia with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Centralia. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Centralia 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.
Centralia detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Centralia: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Centralia: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Centralia: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Centralia: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Centralia 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.