Best PlacesCottage Lake, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Cottage Lake, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Cottage Lake ranks 340th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on high incomes by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Cottage 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.
Cottage Lake's strengths and weaknesses
Where Cottage Lake ranks high
- Household income$201,475 median, better than 99% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 99% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 98% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 97% of towns
- TransitBetter than 96% of towns
Where Cottage Lake ranks low
- Cheap childcare$2,022 a month, better than only 1% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 13% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 15% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 30% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 36% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Cottage Lake
A household needs to earn about $343,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Cottage Lake home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $201,475, 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 Cottage Lake's effective rate of 0.86%, 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 Cottage Lake
Cottage Lake runs older than the country, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Cottage Lake.
Who works in Cottage Lake, and how
Work in Cottage Lake centers on professional & technical and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 63%
- Work from home 33%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Cottage Lake
Cottage Lake has more parkland per resident than 84% of towns. The coast is about 22 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Cottage Lake and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Cottage Lake, month by month
Cottage Lake sees roughly 136 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 76 degrees. January highs sit near 48, with lows near 36. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 48° | 42° | 36° |
| April | 59° | 50° | 42° |
| July | 76° | 64° | 55° |
| October | 60° | 52° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Cottage Lake
The nearest airport, Seattle Paine Field International, is about 14 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Seattle-Tacoma International, about 23 miles away.
Cottage 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 Cottage Lake against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Cottage Lake
Is Cottage Lake a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Cottage Lake ranks 340th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on high incomes, population health, and what local pay buys, 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 Cottage Lake expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,300,967. The overall cost of living runs about 39% above the national average. Set against a $201,475 median income, cost of living beats 98% of towns.
Is Cottage Lake safe?
Yes, Cottage Lake is safer than 64% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $344 per resident a year.
Compare Cottage Lake with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Cottage Lake. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Cottage 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.
Cottage Lake detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Cottage Lake: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Cottage Lake: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Cottage Lake: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Cottage Lake: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Cottage 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.