Best PlacesCougar, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Cougar, 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.
Cougar ranks 40,516th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on quiet by a wide margin, and cell coverage ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Cougar
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.
Cougar's strengths and weaknesses
Where Cougar ranks high
- QuietBetter than 97% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 94% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 86% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 81% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 78% of towns
Where Cougar ranks low
- Cell coverageBetter than only 1% of towns
- Short commute45.2 minutes each way, better than only 2% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 4% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,375 a month, better than only 7% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Cougar
A household needs to earn about $106,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Cougar home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $74,238, 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 Cougar's effective rate of 0.64%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Cougar
Cougar runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Cougar.
Who works in Cougar, and how
Work in Cougar centers on hospitality & food and construction. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 87%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Cougar
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Cougar.
What the weather is like in Cougar, month by month
Cougar sees roughly 79 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 degrees. January highs sit near 49, with lows near 35. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 49° | 41° | 35° |
| April | 64° | 51° | 40° |
| July | 82° | 66° | 55° |
| October | 65° | 53° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Cougar
Portland International sits about 36 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 9.1 million passengers in 2025, with 117 nonstop destinations.
Cougar 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 Cougar against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Cougar
Is Cougar a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Cougar ranks 40,516th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on quiet, clean air, and low taxes, and lowest on cell coverage and long commutes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Cougar expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $415,000. The overall cost of living runs about 5% above the national average. Set against a $74,238 median income, cost of living beats 27% of towns.
Is Cougar safe?
Cougar is safer than 24% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $760 per resident a year.
Compare Cougar with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Cougar. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Cougar 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.
Cougar detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Cougar: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Cougar: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Cougar: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Cougar: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Cougar 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.