Best PlacesGold Bar, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Gold Bar, 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.
Gold Bar ranks 18,849th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on transit by a wide margin, and long commutes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Gold Bar
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.
Gold Bar's strengths and weaknesses
Where Gold Bar ranks high
- TransitBetter than 96% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 95% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 92% of towns
- BikingBetter than 91% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 136 pleasant days a year, better than 88% of towns
Where Gold Bar ranks low
- Short commute47.3 minutes each way, better than only 1% of towns
- 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
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 18% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Gold Bar
A household needs to earn about $118,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Gold Bar home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $90,193, 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 Gold Bar's effective rate of 0.63%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 10 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Gold Bar
Gold Bar'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 Gold Bar.
Who works in Gold Bar, and how
Work in Gold Bar centers on construction and health care & social. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 85%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Gold Bar
The coast is about 38 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Gold Bar, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Gold Bar, month by month
Gold Bar sees roughly 136 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 | 59° | 50° | 42° |
| July | 76° | 64° | 55° |
| October | 60° | 52° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Gold Bar
The nearest airport, Seattle Paine Field International, is about 28 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Seattle-Tacoma International, about 40 miles away.
Gold Bar 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 Gold Bar against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Gold Bar
Is Gold Bar a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Gold Bar ranks 18,849th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on transit, clean air, and fast internet, and lowest on long commutes and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Gold Bar expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $463,253. The overall cost of living runs about 13% above the national average. Set against a $90,193 median income, cost of living beats 42% of towns.
Is Gold Bar safe?
Yes, Gold Bar is safer than 77% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $316 per resident a year.
Compare Gold Bar with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Gold Bar. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Gold Bar 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.
Gold Bar detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Gold Bar: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Gold Bar: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Gold Bar: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Gold Bar: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Gold Bar 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.