Best PlacesLake Tapps, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Lake Tapps, 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.
Lake Tapps ranks 2,874th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on high incomes by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Lake Tapps
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.
Lake Tapps' strengths and weaknesses
Where Lake Tapps ranks high
- Household income$149,379 median, better than 97% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 96% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 95% of towns
- TransitBetter than 90% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 90% of towns
Where Lake Tapps ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,355 a month, better than only 7% of towns
- Short commute36.7 minutes each way, better than only 10% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 13% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 18% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 23% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Lake Tapps
A household needs to earn about $194,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Lake Tapps home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $149,379, 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 Lake Tapps' effective rate of 0.90%, 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 Lake Tapps
Lake Tapps'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 Lake Tapps.
Who works in Lake Tapps, and how
Work in Lake Tapps centers on manufacturing and construction. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 79%
- Work from home 18%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Lake Tapps
The coast is about 18 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Lake Tapps, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Lake Tapps, month by month
Lake Tapps sees roughly 103 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 degrees. January highs sit near 49, with lows near 35. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 49° | 41° | 35° |
| April | 61° | 49° | 40° |
| July | 82° | 67° | 54° |
| October | 63° | 52° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Lake Tapps
Seattle-Tacoma International sits about 17 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 25.4 million passengers in 2025, with 172 nonstop destinations.
Lake Tapps 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 Lake Tapps against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Lake Tapps
Is Lake Tapps a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Lake Tapps ranks 2,874th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on high incomes, what local pay buys, and civic engagement, and lowest on childcare costs and long commutes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Lake Tapps expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $732,494. The overall cost of living runs about 13% above the national average. Set against a $149,379 median income, cost of living beats 96% of towns.
Is Lake Tapps safe?
Yes, Lake Tapps is safer than 78% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $296 per resident a year.
Compare Lake Tapps with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Lake Tapps. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Lake Tapps 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.
Lake Tapps detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Lake Tapps: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Lake Tapps: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Lake Tapps: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Lake Tapps: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Lake Tapps 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.