Best PlacesCheney, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Cheney, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Cheney ranks 17,549th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on biking by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Cheney
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.
Cheney's strengths and weaknesses
Where Cheney ranks high
- BikingBetter than 99% of towns
- TransitBetter than 97% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 94% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 94% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 92% of towns
Where Cheney ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 11% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 11% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 13% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,197 a month, better than only 14% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 15% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Cheney
A household needs to earn about $111,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Cheney home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $67,482, 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 Cheney'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 Cheney
Cheney runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Cheney.
Who works in Cheney, and how
Work in Cheney centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 74%
- Work from home 13%
- Transit, walk, or bike 12%
Life in Cheney
Cheney has more parkland per resident than 83% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Cheney and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Cheney, month by month
Cheney sees roughly 97 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 37, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 37° | 29° | 23° |
| April | 60° | 45° | 32° |
| July | 88° | 68° | 45° |
| October | 61° | 44° | 30° |
Flying in and out of Cheney
The nearest airport, Spokane International, is about 8 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Seattle-Tacoma International, about 221 miles away.
Cheney 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 Cheney against the other 50,332 towns.
Who Cheney suits
Families
Schools land around the 39th percentile and crime safety beats 67%.
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 13% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Cheney
Is Cheney a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Cheney ranks 17,549th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on biking, transit, and walkability, and lowest on noise and thin health care access. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Cheney expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $428,960. The overall cost of living runs about 8% below the national average. Set against a $67,482 median income, cost of living beats 32% of towns.
Is Cheney safe?
Yes, Cheney is safer than 67% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $361 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Cheney?
July highs average about 88 degrees, and January highs near 37 with lows near 23. That works out to about 97 pleasant days a year, more than 66% of towns.
Is Cheney good for families?
Schools beat 39% of towns, crime safety beats 67%, and childcare runs $1,197 a month.
Compare Cheney with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Cheney. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Cheney 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.
Cheney detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Cheney: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Cheney: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Cheney: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Cheney: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Cheney 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.