Best PlacesLynden, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Lynden, 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.
Lynden ranks 3,356th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on transit by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Lynden
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.
Lynden's strengths and weaknesses
Where Lynden ranks high
- TransitBetter than 96% of towns
- BikingBetter than 96% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 96% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 90% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 89% of towns
Where Lynden ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,516 a month, better than only 2% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 13% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 25% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 27% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 27% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Lynden
A household needs to earn about $162,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Lynden home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $102,684, 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 Lynden's effective rate of 0.65%, 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 Lynden
Lynden runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Lynden.
Who works in Lynden, and how
Work in Lynden centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 80%
- Work from home 13%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Lynden
Lynden has more restaurants and bars per resident than 91% of towns and more parkland per resident than 94% of towns. The coast is about 19 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Lynden and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Lynden, month by month
Lynden sees roughly 124 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 76 degrees. January highs sit near 48, with lows near 33. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 48° | 40° | 33° |
| April | 60° | 50° | 40° |
| July | 76° | 65° | 54° |
| October | 61° | 51° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Lynden
The nearest airport, Bellingham International, is about 11 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Seattle-Tacoma International, about 103 miles away.
Lynden 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 Lynden against the other 50,332 towns.
Who Lynden suits
Families
Schools land around the 48th percentile and crime safety beats 86%.
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 13% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Lynden
Is Lynden a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Lynden ranks 3,356th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on transit, biking, and clean air, 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 Lynden expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $633,061. The overall cost of living runs about 10% above the national average. Set against a $102,684 median income, cost of living beats 68% of towns.
Is Lynden safe?
Yes, Lynden is safer than 86% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $277 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Lynden?
July highs average about 76 degrees, and January highs near 48 with lows near 33. That works out to about 124 pleasant days a year, more than 82% of towns.
Is Lynden good for families?
Schools beat 48% of towns, crime safety beats 86%, and childcare runs $1,516 a month.
Compare Lynden with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Lynden. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Lynden 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.
Lynden detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Lynden: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Lynden: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Lynden: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Lynden: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Lynden 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.