Best PlacesLa Center, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around La Center, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
La Center ranks 5,479th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in La Center
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.
La Center's strengths and weaknesses
Where La Center ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 95% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 93% of towns
- Household income$109,442 median, better than 90% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 86% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 86% of towns
Where La Center ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,375 a month, better than only 7% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 13% of towns
- Short commute35.2 minutes each way, better than only 13% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 30% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 31% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in La Center
A household needs to earn about $157,000 a year to comfortably buy the median La Center home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $109,442, 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 La Center's effective rate of 0.69%, 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 La Center
La Center's age mix sits close to the national median, 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 La Center.
Who works in La Center, and how
Work in La Center centers on construction and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 81%
- Work from home 15%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in La Center
La Center has more parkland per resident than 89% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of La Center and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in La Center, month by month
La Center sees roughly 100 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 49, with lows near 33. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 49° | 41° | 33° |
| April | 65° | 52° | 39° |
| July | 85° | 69° | 54° |
| October | 67° | 53° | 42° |
Flying in and out of La Center
Portland International sits about 20 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 9.1 million passengers in 2025, with 117 nonstop destinations.
La Center 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 La Center against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in La Center
Is La Center a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, La Center ranks 5,479th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on clean air, low crime, and high incomes, 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 La Center expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $608,864. The overall cost of living runs about 9% above the national average. Set against a $109,442 median income, cost of living beats 75% of towns.
Is La Center safe?
Yes, La Center is safer than 93% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $224 per resident a year.
Compare La Center with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to La Center. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in La Center 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.
La Center detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for La Center: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in La Center: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of La Center: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in La Center: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
La Center 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.