Best PlacesFairwood, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Fairwood, 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.
Fairwood ranks 3,834th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on biking by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Fairwood
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.
Fairwood's strengths and weaknesses
Where Fairwood ranks high
- BikingBetter than 99% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 98% of towns
- TransitBetter than 98% of towns
- Household income$129,308 median, better than 95% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 95% of towns
Where Fairwood ranks low
- Cheap childcare$2,022 a month, better than only 1% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 11% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 13% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 17% of towns
- Short commute33.0 minutes each way, better than only 20% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Fairwood
A household needs to earn about $191,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Fairwood home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $129,308, 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 Fairwood's effective rate of 0.85%, 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 Fairwood
Fairwood'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 Fairwood.
Who works in Fairwood, and how
Work in Fairwood centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 70%
- Work from home 26%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Fairwood
Fairwood has more parkland per resident than 88% of towns. The coast is about 17 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Fairwood and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Fairwood, month by month
Fairwood sees roughly 148 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 81 degrees. January highs sit near 50, with lows near 36. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 50° | 42° | 36° |
| April | 62° | 52° | 42° |
| July | 81° | 69° | 58° |
| October | 63° | 54° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Fairwood
Seattle-Tacoma International sits about 8 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 25.4 million passengers in 2025, with 172 nonstop destinations.
Fairwood 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 Fairwood against the other 50,332 towns.
Who Fairwood suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 87% of towns, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 26% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Fairwood
Is Fairwood a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Fairwood ranks 3,834th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on biking, population health, and transit, 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 Fairwood expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $724,157. The overall cost of living runs about 17% above the national average. Set against a $129,308 median income, cost of living beats 87% of towns.
Is Fairwood safe?
Fairwood is safer than 17% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $630 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Fairwood?
July highs average about 81 degrees, and January highs near 50 with lows near 36. That works out to about 148 pleasant days a year, more than 92% of towns.
Is Fairwood good for families?
Schools beat 73% of towns, crime safety beats 17%, and childcare runs $2,022 a month.
Compare Fairwood with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Fairwood. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Fairwood 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.
Fairwood detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Fairwood: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Fairwood: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Fairwood: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Fairwood: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Fairwood 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.