Best PlacesKotzebue, AK Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Kotzebue, 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.
Kotzebue ranks 9,306th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and distance from a big city ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Kotzebue
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.
Kotzebue's strengths and weaknesses
Where Kotzebue ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 99% of towns
- Short commute6.1 minutes each way, better than 99% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 99% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 99% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 99% of towns
Where Kotzebue ranks low
- Big-city accessBetter than only 3% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 3% of towns
- School gradeD, better than only 6% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 12% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Kotzebue
A household needs to earn about $74,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Kotzebue home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $108,040, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
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 a national 0.90% effective rate, since no local rate is published, 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 6 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Kotzebue
Kotzebue 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 Kotzebue.
Who works in Kotzebue, and how
Work in Kotzebue centers on health care & social and public administration. Unemployment is low.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 48%
- Work from home 5%
- Transit, walk, or bike 48%
Life in Kotzebue
The coast is about 1 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Kotzebue, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Kotzebue, month by month
Kotzebue sees roughly 99 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 62 degrees. January highs sit near 9, with lows near -6. The comfortable stretch runs July.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 9° | 2° | -6° |
| April | 27° | 19° | 9° |
| July | 62° | 56° | 50° |
| October | 35° | 30° | 25° |
Flying in and out of Kotzebue
The nearest airport, Ralph Wien Memorial, is about 1 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Ted Stevens Anchorage International, about 547 miles away.
The best schools in and around Kotzebue
Schools across Kotzebue average a D, better than 6% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- June Nelson ElementaryF · 10% proficient
Top high schools
- Kotzebue Middle/high SchoolD− · 15% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Kotzebue school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Kotzebue 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 Kotzebue against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Kotzebue
Is Kotzebue a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Kotzebue ranks 9,306th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on clean air, short commutes, and low property taxes, and lowest on distance from a big city and thin health care access. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Kotzebue expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $280,996. The overall cost of living runs about 59% above the national average. Set against a $108,040 median income, cost of living beats 20% of towns.
Is Kotzebue safe?
Kotzebue is safer than 10% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $888 per resident a year.
Compare Kotzebue with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Kotzebue. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Kotzebue 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.
Kotzebue detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Kotzebue: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Kotzebue: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Kotzebue: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Kotzebue: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Kotzebue 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.