Best PlacesLakebay, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Lakebay, 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.
Lakebay ranks 22,094th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and long commutes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Lakebay
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.
Lakebay's strengths and weaknesses
Where Lakebay ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 95% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 88% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 88% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 88% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 86% of towns
Where Lakebay ranks low
- Short commute47.1 minutes each way, better than only 1% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,327 a month, better than only 8% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 8% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 13% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 15% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Lakebay
A household needs to earn about $118,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Lakebay home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $81,488, 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 Lakebay's effective rate of 0.76%, 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 10 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Lakebay
Lakebay runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Lakebay.
Who works in Lakebay, and how
Work in Lakebay centers on manufacturing and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 76%
- Work from home 20%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Lakebay
The coast is about 37 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Lakebay, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Lakebay, month by month
Lakebay sees roughly 132 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 79 degrees. January highs sit near 48, with lows near 36. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 48° | 42° | 36° |
| April | 60° | 49° | 41° |
| July | 79° | 65° | 54° |
| October | 61° | 52° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Lakebay
Seattle-Tacoma International sits about 26 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 25.4 million passengers in 2025, with 172 nonstop destinations.
Lakebay 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 Lakebay against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Lakebay
Is Lakebay a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Lakebay ranks 22,094th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on clean air, big-city access, and civic engagement, and lowest on long commutes and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Lakebay expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $455,576. The overall cost of living runs about 12% above the national average. Set against a $81,488 median income, cost of living beats 40% of towns.
Is Lakebay safe?
Lakebay is safer than 51% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $405 per resident a year.
Compare Lakebay with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Lakebay. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Lakebay 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.
Lakebay detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Lakebay: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Lakebay: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Lakebay: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Lakebay: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Lakebay 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.