Best PlacesLakewood, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Lakewood, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Distance to the water drives a lot of the difference between one part and the next. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Lakewood ranks 1,769th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and crime is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Lakewood
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 Lakewood
The parts of Lakewood, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first.
Holly Hedge
Woodbrook
South Tacoma & South End
Scores across Lakewood run from about the 4th to the 76th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Lakewood's strengths and weaknesses
Where Lakewood ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 95% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 83% of cities
- TransitBetter than 81% of cities
- Cell coverageBetter than 76% of cities
- BikingBetter than 72% of cities
Where Lakewood ranks low
- Crime safetyBetter than only 2% of cities
- State infrastructureBetter than only 9% of cities
- School gradeD, better than only 10% of cities
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 12% of cities
- Internet speedBetter than only 13% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Lakewood
A household needs to earn about $134,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Lakewood home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $82,400, 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 Lakewood's effective rate of 0.92%, 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 Lakewood
Lakewood's age mix sits close to the national median, 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 Lakewood.
Who works in Lakewood, and how
Work in Lakewood centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 83%
- Work from home 9%
- Transit, walk, or bike 8%
Life in Lakewood
Lakewood has more restaurants and bars per resident than 79% of cities and more parkland per resident than 95% of cities. The coast is about 12 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Lakewood and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Lakewood, month by month
Lakewood sees roughly 81 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 81 degrees. January highs sit near 49, with lows near 32. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 49° | 40° | 32° |
| April | 62° | 49° | 37° |
| July | 81° | 67° | 51° |
| October | 63° | 51° | 40° |
Flying in and out of Lakewood
Seattle-Tacoma International sits about 22 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 25.4 million passengers in 2025, with 172 nonstop destinations.
Lakewood 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 Lakewood against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Lakewood suits
Retirees
Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.
Common questions about living in Lakewood
Is Lakewood a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Lakewood ranks 1,769th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on clean air, low taxes, and transit, and lowest on crime and state infrastructure. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Lakewood expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $503,814. The overall cost of living runs about 9% above the national average. Set against a $82,400 median income, cost of living beats 23% of cities.
Is Lakewood safe?
Lakewood is safer than 2% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $998 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Lakewood?
July highs average about 81 degrees, and January highs near 49 with lows near 32. That works out to about 81 pleasant days a year, more than 45% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Lakewood?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Holly Hedge, Woodbrook, and South Tacoma & South End. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Compare Lakewood with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Lakewood. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Lakewood 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.
Lakewood detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Lakewood: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Lakewood: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Lakewood: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Lakewood: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Lakewood 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.