Best PlacesMoses Lake, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Moses Lake, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Moses Lake ranks 1,226th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cell coverage by a wide margin, and internet speeds rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Moses Lake
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.
Moses Lake's strengths and weaknesses
Where Moses Lake ranks high
- Cell coverageBetter than 94% of cities
- Short commute19.2 minutes each way, better than 90% of cities
- Disaster safetyBetter than 87% of cities
- Nice weatherabout 158 pleasant days a year, better than 85% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 83% of cities
Where Moses Lake ranks low
- Internet speedBetter than only 4% of cities
- Big-city accessBetter than only 7% of cities
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 8% of cities
- State infrastructureBetter than only 9% of cities
- Tree shadeBetter than only 11% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Moses Lake
A household needs to earn about $82,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Moses Lake home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $77,946; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Moses Lake'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 Moses Lake
Moses Lake runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Moses Lake.
Who works in Moses Lake, and how
Work in Moses Lake centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Moses Lake
Moses Lake has more restaurants and bars per resident than 70% of cities and more parkland per resident than 82% of cities. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Moses Lake and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Moses Lake, month by month
Moses Lake sees roughly 158 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 93 degrees. January highs sit near 39, with lows near 24. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, August, and September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 39° | 31° | 24° |
| April | 67° | 52° | 36° |
| July | 93° | 77° | 57° |
| October | 66° | 51° | 36° |
Flying in and out of Moses Lake
The nearest airport, Pangborn Memorial, is about 46 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Seattle-Tacoma International, about 143 miles away.
Moses Lake 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 Moses Lake against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Moses Lake suits
Families
Schools land around the 24th percentile and crime safety beats 58%.
Common questions about living in Moses Lake
Is Moses Lake a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Moses Lake ranks 1,226th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on cell coverage, short commutes, and low disaster risk, and lowest on internet speeds and distance from a big city. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Moses Lake expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $316,229. The overall cost of living runs about 8% below the national average. Set against a $77,946 median income, cost of living beats 36% of cities.
Is Moses Lake safe?
Yes, Moses Lake is safer than 58% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $397 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Moses Lake?
July highs average about 93 degrees, and January highs near 39 with lows near 24. That works out to about 158 pleasant days a year, more than 85% of cities.
Is Moses Lake good for families?
Schools beat 24% of cities, crime safety beats 58%, and childcare runs $1,077 a month.
Compare Moses Lake with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Moses Lake. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Moses Lake 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.
Moses Lake detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Moses Lake: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Moses Lake: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Moses Lake: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Moses Lake: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Moses Lake 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.