Best PlacesMarcus, WA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Marcus, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Costs and crime both read low, and the nearest big city is a drive away. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Marcus ranks 40,561st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. Long commutes pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on low taxes.

#40,561
of 50,333 towns
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 50,333 towns
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Marcus

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Marcus area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

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.

Marcus' strengths and weaknesses

Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Marcus with other towns.

Where Marcus ranks high

  • Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 86% of towns
  • Local economyBetter than 83% of towns
  • Air qualityBetter than 81% of towns
  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than 76% of towns
  • Crime safetyBetter than 73% of towns

Where Marcus ranks low

  • Short commute42.1 minutes each way, better than only 3% of towns
  • Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 8% of towns
  • Housing crash safetyBetter than only 8% of towns
  • Big-city accessBetter than only 9% of towns
  • Household income$47,391 median, better than only 10% of towns

What it costs to buy a home in Marcus

A household needs to earn about $82,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Marcus home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $47,391, so buying stretches a typical household.

Income to buy the median home
$82,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$1,906
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $321,288 home
Median rent
$840
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$1,638
Property tax$160
Homeowners insurance$107

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 Marcus' effective rate of 0.60%, 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.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Marcus

Marcus runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.

Median age
58
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
32%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.2
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1817%
18 to 3411%
35 to 4918%
50 to 6422%
65 and older32%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Marcus.


Who works in Marcus, and how

Work in Marcus centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
17%
about the national average
Unemployment
2.3%
below the national average
Job growth
+4.0%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social19%
Retail trade15%
Manufacturing14%
Education11%
Construction11%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 81%
  • Work from home 17%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 2%

Life in Marcus

The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Marcus.


What the weather is like in Marcus, month by month

Marcus sees roughly 97 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 36, with lows near 21. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January36°29°21°
April61°46°31°
July89°70°48°
October61°45°31°

Flying in and out of Marcus

The nearest airport, Spokane International, is about 77 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Seattle-Tacoma International, about 212 miles away.

Nearest airport
GEG
Spokane International, about 77 miles
Airport size
Small hub
73rd-busiest in the US, 54 nonstop destinations
Average drive
110 min
from the area, with no traffic

Marcus 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 Marcus against the other 50,332 towns.


Common questions about living in Marcus

Is Marcus a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Marcus ranks 40,561st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low taxes, a strong job market, and clean air, and lowest on long commutes and the cost of living against local pay. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Marcus expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $321,288. The overall cost of living runs about 8% below the national average. Set against a $47,391 median income, cost of living beats 8% of towns.

Is Marcus safe?

Yes, Marcus is safer than 73% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $313 per resident a year.


Compare Marcus with other towns


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Marcus. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Marcus 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.

Marcus detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Marcus: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Marcus: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Marcus: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Marcus: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Marcus detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.