Best PlacesChinook, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Chinook, 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.
Chinook ranks 18,165th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Chinook
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.
Chinook's strengths and weaknesses
Where Chinook ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 99% of towns
- QuietBetter than 97% of towns
- TransitBetter than 91% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 86% of towns
- BikingBetter than 86% of towns
Where Chinook ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 4% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 5% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,375 a month, better than only 7% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Chinook
A household needs to earn about $90,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Chinook home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $93,438, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
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 Chinook's effective rate of 0.60%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Chinook
Chinook 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 Chinook.
Who works in Chinook, and how
Work in Chinook centers on retail trade and construction. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 75%
- Work from home 15%
- Transit, walk, or bike 9%
Life in Chinook
Chinook has more restaurants and bars per resident than 99% of towns. The coast is about 1 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Chinook and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Chinook, month by month
Chinook sees roughly 115 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 70 degrees. January highs sit near 52, with lows near 37. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 52° | 44° | 37° |
| April | 59° | 49° | 40° |
| July | 70° | 61° | 53° |
| October | 63° | 54° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Chinook
Portland International sits about 80 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 9.1 million passengers in 2025, with 117 nonstop destinations.
Chinook 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 Chinook against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Chinook
Is Chinook a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Chinook ranks 18,165th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on clean air, quiet, and transit, and lowest on an overheated housing market 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 Chinook expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $352,600. The overall cost of living runs about 2% above the national average. Set against a $93,438 median income, cost of living beats 74% of towns.
Is Chinook safe?
Yes, Chinook is safer than 62% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $357 per resident a year.
Compare Chinook with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Chinook. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Chinook 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.
Chinook detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Chinook: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Chinook: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Chinook: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Chinook: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Chinook 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.