Best PlacesExcelsior Beach, ID Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Excelsior Beach, 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.
Excelsior Beach ranks 4,085th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on state finances by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Excelsior Beach
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.
Excelsior Beach's strengths and weaknesses
Where Excelsior Beach ranks high
- State fiscal healthBetter than 98% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 98% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 95% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 94% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 92% of towns
Where Excelsior Beach ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 3% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 22% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 28% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Excelsior Beach
A household needs to earn about $122,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Excelsior Beach home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $100,720, 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 Excelsior Beach's effective rate of 0.34%, 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 Excelsior Beach
Excelsior Beach runs younger 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 Excelsior Beach.
Who works in Excelsior Beach, and how
Work in Excelsior Beach centers on retail trade and construction. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 88%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 1%
Life in Excelsior Beach
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Excelsior Beach.
What the weather is like in Excelsior Beach, month by month
Excelsior Beach sees roughly 94 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 36, with lows near 24. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 36° | 30° | 24° |
| April | 59° | 46° | 34° |
| July | 88° | 72° | 53° |
| October | 60° | 47° | 36° |
Flying in and out of Excelsior Beach
The nearest airport, Spokane International, is about 33 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Seattle-Tacoma International, about 253 miles away.
The best schools in and around Excelsior Beach
Schools across Excelsior Beach average a B+, better than 77% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Twin Lakes Elementary SchoolA− · 60% proficient
Top middle schools
- Lakeland Middle SchoolB− · 42% proficient
Top high schools
- Lakeland Senior High SchoolB+ · 58% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Excelsior Beach school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Excelsior Beach 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 Excelsior Beach against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Excelsior Beach
Is Excelsior Beach a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Excelsior Beach ranks 4,085th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on state finances, low disaster risk, and fast internet, and lowest on an overheated housing market and biking. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Excelsior Beach expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $496,900. The overall cost of living runs about 6% below the national average. Set against a $100,720 median income, cost of living beats 82% of towns.
Is Excelsior Beach safe?
Yes, Excelsior Beach is safer than 87% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $212 per resident a year.
Compare Excelsior Beach with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Excelsior Beach. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Excelsior Beach 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.
Excelsior Beach detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Excelsior Beach: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Excelsior Beach: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Excelsior Beach: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Excelsior Beach: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Excelsior Beach 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.