Best PlacesCuster, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Custer, 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.
Custer ranks 7,411th 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 Custer
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.
Custer's strengths and weaknesses
Where Custer ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 96% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 93% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 89% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 88% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 87% of towns
Where Custer ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,516 a month, better than only 2% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 13% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 13% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 15% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 25% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Custer
A household needs to earn about $165,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Custer home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $101,969, 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 Custer's effective rate of 0.67%, 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 Custer
Custer's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Custer.
Who works in Custer, and how
Work in Custer centers on manufacturing and construction. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 81%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Custer
The coast is about 14 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Custer, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Custer, month by month
Custer sees roughly 124 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 76 degrees. January highs sit near 48, with lows near 33. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 48° | 40° | 33° |
| April | 60° | 50° | 40° |
| July | 76° | 65° | 54° |
| October | 61° | 51° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Custer
The nearest airport, Bellingham International, is about 12 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Seattle-Tacoma International, about 105 miles away.
Custer 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 Custer against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Custer
Is Custer a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Custer ranks 7,411th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on clean air, population health, and civic engagement, and lowest on childcare costs and an overheated housing market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Custer expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $642,303. The overall cost of living runs about 13% above the national average. Set against a $101,969 median income, cost of living beats 64% of towns.
Is Custer safe?
Yes, Custer is safer than 87% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $270 per resident a year.
Compare Custer with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Custer. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Custer 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.
Custer detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Custer: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Custer: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Custer: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Custer: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Custer 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.