Best PlacesMount Vernon, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Mount Vernon metro, 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.
Photo by SounderBruce, CC BY-SA 4.0, via commons
Mount Vernon ranks 121st of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 14 minutes away. Its strengths are clean air and quiet. The cost shows up in childcare costs, state infrastructure, and long commutes.
The best neighborhoods in the Mount Vernon metro
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 Mount Vernon
The towns and districts of the Mount Vernon metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Anacortes
More adults hold degrees, crime runs lower, and health care is easier to reach.
La Conner
Tree cover is thicker, though fewer households have young kids.
Downtown Mount Vernon
Fewer homes sit empty and biking is better.
Sedro-Woolley & Concrete
It is quieter, though commutes are longer.
Burlington
Fewer residents vote and incomes run lower.
Mount Vernon shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 14% of the country and others in the top 6%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Mount Vernon's strengths and weaknesses
Mount Vernon lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Clean air is the standout, in the top 1% of metro areas. Quiet and heat safety follow.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Childcare costs, state infrastructure, and long commutes hold the score down. Cost swings more from one part of Mount Vernon to another than it does between Mount Vernon and its neighbors, which the map below shows.
Where Mount Vernon ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 99% of metro areas
- QuietBetter than 90% of metro areas
- Heat safetyBetter than 87% of metro areas
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 82% of metro areas
- Household income$91,938 median, better than 78% of metro areas
Where Mount Vernon ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,516 a month, better than only 5% of metro areas
- State infrastructureBetter than only 10% of metro areas
- Short commute26.4 minutes each way, better than only 17% of metro areas
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 17% of metro areas
- Cell coverageBetter than only 17% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Mount Vernon
A household needs to earn about $141,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Mount Vernon home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $91,938, 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 Mount Vernon'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 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 Mount Vernon
Mount Vernon runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Mount Vernon.
Who works in Mount Vernon, and how
Work in Mount Vernon centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 83%
- Work from home 13%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Mount Vernon
Mount Vernon has more late-night spots per resident than 94% of metro areas. The coast is about 14 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Mount Vernon and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Mount Vernon growing, and who is moving in?
Mount Vernon has grown about 11% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Seattle, WA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Mount Vernon go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Mount Vernon, month by month
Mount Vernon sees roughly 125 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 77 degrees. January highs sit near 48, with lows near 37. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 48° | 41° | 37° |
| April | 60° | 50° | 43° |
| July | 77° | 64° | 53° |
| October | 60° | 52° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Mount Vernon
The nearest airport, Bellingham International, is about 28 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Seattle-Tacoma International, about 67 miles away.
Mount Vernon 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 Mount Vernon against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Mount Vernon suits
Families
Schools land around the 50th percentile and crime safety beats 66%.
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 13% already work from home.
Retirees
The weather beats 76% of metro areas and it is quieter than 90%.
Common questions about living in Mount Vernon
Is Mount Vernon a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Mount Vernon ranks 121st of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on clean air, quiet, and heat safety, 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 Mount Vernon expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $543,094. The overall cost of living runs about 9% above the national average. Set against a $91,938 median income, cost of living beats 36% of metro areas.
Is Mount Vernon safe?
Yes, Mount Vernon is safer than 66% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $414 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Mount Vernon?
July highs average about 77 degrees, and January highs near 48 with lows near 37. That works out to about 125 pleasant days a year, more than 76% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Mount Vernon?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Anacortes, La Conner, and Downtown Mount Vernon. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Mount Vernon good for families?
Schools beat 50% of metro areas, crime safety beats 66%, and childcare runs $1,516 a month.
Is Mount Vernon good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 36% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 70% of metro areas. About 13% of workers already work from home.
Compare Mount Vernon with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Mount Vernon. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Mount Vernon 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.
Mount Vernon detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Mount Vernon: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Mount Vernon: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Mount Vernon: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Mount Vernon: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Mount Vernon 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.