Best PlacesHillgrove, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Hillgrove, 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.
Hillgrove ranks 21,926th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Hillgrove
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.
Hillgrove's strengths and weaknesses
Where Hillgrove ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 95% of towns
- TransitBetter than 90% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 86% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 84% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 80% of towns
Where Hillgrove ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 5% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,375 a month, better than only 7% of towns
- Short commute35.7 minutes each way, better than only 12% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 13% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 15% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Hillgrove
A household needs to earn about $122,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Hillgrove home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $88,805, 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 Hillgrove's effective rate of 0.82%, 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 Hillgrove
Hillgrove'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 Hillgrove.
Who works in Hillgrove, and how
Work in Hillgrove centers on public administration and education. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 70%
- Work from home 28%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Hillgrove
The coast is about 45 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Hillgrove, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Hillgrove, month by month
Hillgrove sees roughly 90 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 degrees. January highs sit near 48, with lows near 33. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 48° | 40° | 33° |
| April | 62° | 48° | 36° |
| July | 82° | 65° | 51° |
| October | 63° | 51° | 40° |
Flying in and out of Hillgrove
Seattle-Tacoma International sits about 51 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 25.4 million passengers in 2025, with 172 nonstop destinations.
Hillgrove 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 Hillgrove against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Hillgrove
Is Hillgrove a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Hillgrove ranks 21,926th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on clean air, transit, and low taxes, and lowest on an overheated housing market and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Hillgrove expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $465,216. The overall cost of living runs about 4% below the national average. Set against a $88,805 median income, cost of living beats 67% of towns.
Is Hillgrove safe?
Yes, Hillgrove is safer than 74% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $337 per resident a year.
Compare Hillgrove with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Hillgrove. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Hillgrove 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.
Hillgrove detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Hillgrove: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Hillgrove: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Hillgrove: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Hillgrove: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Hillgrove 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.