Best PlacesDiscovery Bay, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Discovery Bay, 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.
Discovery Bay ranks 36,484th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and a weak job market ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Discovery Bay
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.
Discovery Bay's strengths and weaknesses
Where Discovery Bay ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 97% of towns
- TransitBetter than 88% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 87% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 86% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 86% of towns
Where Discovery Bay ranks low
- Local economyBetter than only 6% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,375 a month, better than only 7% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 9% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 9% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 11% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Discovery Bay
A household needs to earn about $131,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Discovery Bay home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $53,074, 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 Discovery Bay's effective rate of 0.65%, 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 Discovery Bay
Discovery Bay 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 Discovery Bay.
Who works in Discovery Bay, and how
Work in Discovery Bay centers on retail trade and health care & social. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 80%
- Work from home 16%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Discovery Bay
The coast is about 21 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Discovery Bay, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Discovery Bay, month by month
Discovery Bay sees roughly 97 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 65 degrees. January highs sit near 47, with lows near 38. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 47° | 42° | 38° |
| April | 54° | 48° | 42° |
| July | 65° | 57° | 52° |
| October | 56° | 50° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Discovery Bay
The nearest airport, Seattle Paine Field International, is about 29 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Seattle-Tacoma International, about 44 miles away.
Discovery Bay 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 Discovery Bay against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Discovery Bay
Is Discovery Bay a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Discovery Bay ranks 36,484th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on clean air, transit, and tree cover, and lowest on a weak job market and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Discovery Bay expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $512,850. The overall cost of living runs about 2% above the national average. Set against a $53,074 median income, cost of living beats 9% of towns.
Is Discovery Bay safe?
Discovery Bay is safer than 25% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $558 per resident a year.
Compare Discovery Bay with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Discovery Bay. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Discovery Bay 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.
Discovery Bay detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Discovery Bay: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Discovery Bay: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Discovery Bay: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Discovery Bay: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Discovery Bay 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.