Best PlacesFairholm, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Fairholm, 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.
Fairholm ranks 18,222nd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and internet speeds rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Fairholm
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.
Fairholm's strengths and weaknesses
Where Fairholm ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 98% of towns
- QuietBetter than 97% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 92% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 88% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 86% of towns
Where Fairholm ranks low
- Internet speedBetter than only 1% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 54 pleasant days a year, better than only 2% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 3% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,375 a month, better than only 7% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 8% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Fairholm
A household needs to earn about $119,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Fairholm home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $71,944, 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 Fairholm's effective rate of 0.61%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Fairholm
Fairholm runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Fairholm.
Who works in Fairholm, and how
Work in Fairholm centers on other services and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 73%
- Work from home 21%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Fairholm
The coast is about 29 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Fairholm, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Fairholm, month by month
Fairholm sees roughly 54 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 Fairholm
The nearest airport, Friday Harbor, is about 38 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Seattle-Tacoma International, about 57 miles away.
Fairholm 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 Fairholm against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Fairholm
Is Fairholm a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Fairholm ranks 18,222nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on clean air, quiet, and low crime, and lowest on internet speeds and the weather. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Fairholm expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $467,500. The overall cost of living runs about 5% above the national average. Set against a $71,944 median income, cost of living beats 27% of towns.
Is Fairholm safe?
Yes, Fairholm is safer than 92% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $226 per resident a year.
Compare Fairholm with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Fairholm. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Fairholm 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.
Fairholm detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Fairholm: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Fairholm: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Fairholm: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Fairholm: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Fairholm 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.