Best PlacesFriday Harbor, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Friday 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.
Friday Harbor ranks 6,374th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on short commutes by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Friday 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.
Friday Harbor's strengths and weaknesses
Where Friday Harbor ranks high
- Short commute13.9 minutes each way, better than 98% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 98% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 94% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 152 pleasant days a year, better than 93% of towns
- TransitBetter than 93% of towns
Where Friday Harbor ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,516 a month, better than only 2% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 7% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 13% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 25% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 34% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Friday Harbor
A household needs to earn about $200,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Friday Harbor home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $86,485, 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 Friday Harbor's effective rate of 0.54%, 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 Friday Harbor
Friday 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 Friday Harbor.
Who works in Friday Harbor, and how
Work in Friday Harbor centers on construction and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 74%
- Work from home 19%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Friday Harbor
Friday Harbor has more restaurants and bars per resident than 91% of towns and more parkland per resident than 96% of towns. The coast is about 7 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Friday Harbor and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Friday Harbor, month by month
Friday Harbor sees roughly 152 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 76 degrees. January highs sit near 48, with lows near 36. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 48° | 42° | 36° |
| April | 60° | 49° | 40° |
| July | 76° | 61° | 50° |
| October | 61° | 52° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Friday Harbor
The nearest airport, Friday Harbor, is about 2 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Seattle-Tacoma International, about 83 miles away.
Friday 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 Friday Harbor against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Friday Harbor
Is Friday Harbor a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Friday Harbor ranks 6,374th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on short commutes, clean air, and an educated workforce, 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 Friday Harbor expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $791,377. The overall cost of living runs about 24% above the national average. Set against a $86,485 median income, cost of living beats 40% of towns.
Is Friday Harbor safe?
Friday Harbor is safer than 44% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $441 per resident a year.
Compare Friday Harbor with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Friday Harbor. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Friday 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.
Friday Harbor detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Friday Harbor: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Friday Harbor: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Friday Harbor: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Friday Harbor: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Friday 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.