Best PlacesDeer Harbor, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Deer Harbor, 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.
Deer Harbor ranks 8,014th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on an educated workforce by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Deer Harbor
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.
Deer Harbor's strengths and weaknesses
Where Deer Harbor ranks high
- Educational attainmentBetter than 98% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 98% of towns
- QuietBetter than 97% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 165 pleasant days a year, better than 96% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 93% of towns
Where Deer Harbor ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,516 a month, better than only 2% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 5% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 13% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 15% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Deer Harbor
A household needs to earn about $281,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Deer Harbor home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $108,750, 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 Deer Harbor's effective rate of 0.60%, 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 Deer Harbor
Deer Harbor 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 Deer Harbor.
Who works in Deer Harbor, and how
Work in Deer Harbor centers on other services and construction. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 46%
- Work from home 44%
- Transit, walk, or bike 10%
Life in Deer Harbor
The coast is about 5 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Deer Harbor, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Deer Harbor, month by month
Deer Harbor sees roughly 165 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 73 degrees. January highs sit near 47, with lows near 38. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 47° | 43° | 38° |
| April | 56° | 49° | 44° |
| July | 73° | 63° | 56° |
| October | 57° | 52° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Deer Harbor
The nearest airport, Friday Harbor, is about 6 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Seattle-Tacoma International, about 87 miles away.
Deer Harbor 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 Deer Harbor against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Deer Harbor
Is Deer Harbor a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Deer Harbor ranks 8,014th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on an educated workforce, clean air, and quiet, 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 Deer Harbor expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,106,600. The overall cost of living runs about 41% above the national average. Set against a $108,750 median income, cost of living beats 52% of towns.
Is Deer Harbor safe?
Deer Harbor is safer than 15% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $637 per resident a year.
Compare Deer Harbor with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Deer Harbor. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Deer Harbor 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.
Deer Harbor detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Deer Harbor: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Deer Harbor: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Deer Harbor: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Deer Harbor: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Deer Harbor 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.