Best PlacesKennewick, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Kennewick metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages hide a wide spread here, so the area matters as much as the address. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by formulanone from Huntsville, United States, CC BY-SA 2.0, via wiki
Kennewick ranks 48th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. Paychecks stretch further here than almost anywhere else: the median household brings in $94,923, everyday costs sit below the national average, and a strong job market ranks near the top of the country. The main drawbacks are thin health care access, state infrastructure, and tree cover.
The best neighborhoods in the Kennewick metro
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.
The best areas in Kennewick
The towns and districts of the Kennewick metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Richland & West Richland
It is quieter, local pay stretches further, and crime runs lower.
Mesa
More adults hold degrees and incomes run higher.
Benton City
More residents vote, though transit reaches fewer jobs.
Prosser
More households have young kids, though biking is worse.
Downtown Kennewick
Advertised internet is faster.
Finley
Health care is harder to reach and schools score lower.
Connell
Homes cost less, though streets are more car-dependent.
Pasco
Disaster risk is lower, though prices have run up more.
Kennewick shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 11% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Kennewick's strengths and weaknesses
Kennewick ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Transit, the weather, and few empty homes carry most of that.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Thin health care access, state infrastructure, and tree cover hold the score down. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Kennewick ranks high
- TransitBetter than 96% of metro areas
- Nice weatherabout 157 pleasant days a year, better than 90% of metro areas
- Low vacancyBetter than 88% of metro areas
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 87% of metro areas
- Local economyBetter than 86% of metro areas
Where Kennewick ranks low
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 6% of metro areas
- State infrastructureBetter than only 10% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than only 12% of metro areas
- School gradeC−, better than only 17% of metro areas
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 21% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Kennewick
A household needs to earn about $104,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Kennewick home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $94,923; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Kennewick's effective rate of 0.74%, 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 Kennewick
Kennewick runs younger than the country, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Kennewick.
Who works in Kennewick, and how
Work in Kennewick centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Kennewick
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Kennewick.
Is Kennewick growing, and who is moving in?
Kennewick has grown about 16% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Portland, OR.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Kennewick go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Kennewick, month by month
Kennewick sees roughly 157 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 97 degrees. January highs sit near 43, with lows near 26. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 43° | 34° | 26° |
| April | 70° | 54° | 38° |
| July | 97° | 78° | 57° |
| October | 69° | 53° | 39° |
Flying in and out of Kennewick
The nearest airport, Tri-Cities, is about 5 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Portland International, about 170 miles away.
Kennewick 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 Kennewick against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Kennewick suits
Families
Schools land around the 17th percentile and crime safety beats 86%.
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 87% of metro areas and 12% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Kennewick
Is Kennewick a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Kennewick ranks 48th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on transit, the weather, and few empty homes, and lowest on thin health care access and state infrastructure. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Kennewick expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $401,671. The overall cost of living runs about 10% below the national average. Set against a $94,923 median income, cost of living beats 87% of metro areas.
Is Kennewick safe?
Yes, Kennewick is safer than 86% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $340 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Kennewick?
July highs average about 97 degrees, and January highs near 43 with lows near 26. That works out to about 157 pleasant days a year, more than 90% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Kennewick?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Richland & West Richland, Mesa, and Benton City. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Kennewick good for families?
Schools beat 17% of metro areas, crime safety beats 86%, and childcare runs $1,102 a month.
Is Kennewick good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 87% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 58% of metro areas. About 12% of workers already work from home.
Compare Kennewick with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Kennewick. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Kennewick 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.
Kennewick detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Kennewick: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Kennewick: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Kennewick: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Kennewick: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Kennewick 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.