Best PlacesGardiner, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Gardiner, 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.
Gardiner ranks 12,539th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on an educated workforce by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Gardiner
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.
Gardiner's strengths and weaknesses
Where Gardiner ranks high
- Educational attainmentBetter than 97% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 97% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
- Short commute17.5 minutes each way, better than 94% of towns
- BikingBetter than 94% of towns
Where Gardiner ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,375 a month, better than only 7% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 13% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 15% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 19% of towns
- Household income$56,355 median, better than only 21% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Gardiner
A household needs to earn about $191,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Gardiner home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $56,355, 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 Gardiner'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 Gardiner
Gardiner 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 Gardiner.
Who works in Gardiner, and how
Work in Gardiner centers on other services and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 87%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Gardiner
The coast is about 2 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Gardiner, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Gardiner, month by month
Gardiner sees roughly 112 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 Gardiner
The nearest airport, Friday Harbor, is about 31 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Seattle-Tacoma International, about 53 miles away.
Gardiner 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 Gardiner against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Gardiner
Is Gardiner a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Gardiner ranks 12,539th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on an educated workforce, clean air, and tree cover, and lowest on childcare costs and state infrastructure. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Gardiner expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $758,701. The overall cost of living runs about 5% above the national average. Set against a $56,355 median income, cost of living beats 15% of towns.
Is Gardiner safe?
Yes, Gardiner is safer than 88% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $270 per resident a year.
Compare Gardiner with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Gardiner. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Gardiner 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.
Gardiner detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Gardiner: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Gardiner: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Gardiner: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Gardiner: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Gardiner 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.