Best PlacesClear Lake, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Clear Lake, 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.
Clear Lake ranks 10,341st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Clear Lake
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.
Clear Lake's strengths and weaknesses
Where Clear Lake ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 98% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 87% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 86% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 85% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 128 pleasant days a year, better than 84% of towns
Where Clear Lake ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,516 a month, better than only 2% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 13% of towns
- Short commute33.2 minutes each way, better than only 19% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 21% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 23% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Clear Lake
A household needs to earn about $131,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Clear Lake home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $93,781, 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 Clear Lake's effective rate of 0.75%, 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 Clear Lake
Clear Lake runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Clear Lake.
Who works in Clear Lake, and how
Work in Clear Lake centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 88%
- Work from home 6%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Clear Lake
The coast is about 21 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Clear Lake, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Clear Lake, month by month
Clear Lake sees roughly 128 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 77 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 | 60° | 50° | 43° |
| July | 77° | 64° | 53° |
| October | 60° | 52° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Clear Lake
The nearest airport, Bellingham International, is about 26 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Seattle-Tacoma International, about 70 miles away.
Clear Lake 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 Clear Lake against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Clear Lake
Is Clear Lake a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Clear Lake ranks 10,341st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on clean air, a strong job market, and low taxes, and lowest on childcare costs and state infrastructure. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Clear Lake expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $503,878. The overall cost of living runs about 9% above the national average. Set against a $93,781 median income, cost of living beats 58% of towns.
Is Clear Lake safe?
Clear Lake is safer than 36% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $476 per resident a year.
Compare Clear Lake with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Clear Lake. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Clear Lake 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.
Clear Lake detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Clear Lake: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Clear Lake: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Clear Lake: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Clear Lake: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Clear Lake 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.