Best PlacesOlympia, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Olympia metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages hide a wide spread here, so the area matters as much as the address. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Libbyflyguy, CC BY 4.0, via commons
Olympia ranks 107th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. Paychecks stretch further here than almost anywhere else: the median household brings in $101,223, wages outrun the cost of living, and an educated workforce ranks near the top of the country. The main drawbacks are cell coverage, state infrastructure, and childcare costs.
The best neighborhoods in the Olympia 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 Olympia
The towns and districts of the Olympia 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.
Downtown Olympia
More adults hold degrees, tree cover is thicker, and streets are more walkable.
Lacey
Scores close to Downtown Olympia, except that more households have young kids here.
Tumwater
Commutes are shorter, though it is noisier.
Tenino
Biking is worse and transit reaches fewer jobs.
Yelm
Crime runs lower, though prices have run up more.
Rochester
Health outcomes score lower.
Olympia shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 13% of the country and others in the top 6%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Olympia's strengths and weaknesses
Olympia lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Clean air, transit, and few empty homes carry most of that.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Cell coverage, state infrastructure, and childcare costs hold the score down. The detail is below, and the map is where it turns into a choice of neighborhood rather than just a place.
Where Olympia ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 96% of metro areas
- TransitBetter than 95% of metro areas
- Low vacancyBetter than 93% of metro areas
- Household income$101,223 median, better than 88% of metro areas
- Voter turnoutBetter than 86% of metro areas
Where Olympia ranks low
- Cell coverageBetter than only 8% of metro areas
- State infrastructureBetter than only 10% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$1,375 a month, better than only 11% of metro areas
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 16% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than only 17% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Olympia
A household needs to earn about $127,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Olympia home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $101,223, 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 Olympia's effective rate of 0.81%, 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 Olympia
Olympia's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Olympia.
Who works in Olympia, and how
Work in Olympia centers on public administration and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 74%
- Work from home 20%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Olympia
Olympia has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas and less parkland per resident than most metro areas. The coast is about 34 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Olympia and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Olympia growing, and who is moving in?
Olympia has grown about 14% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Seattle, WA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Olympia go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Olympia, month by month
Olympia sees roughly 94 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 degrees. January highs sit near 49, with lows near 33. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 49° | 41° | 33° |
| April | 62° | 49° | 36° |
| July | 82° | 65° | 50° |
| October | 63° | 51° | 40° |
Flying in and out of Olympia
Seattle-Tacoma International sits about 39 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 25.4 million passengers in 2025, with 172 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Olympia
Schools across Olympia average a C+, better than 43% of metro areas.
Top middle schools
- Lakeridge Middle SchoolA · 60% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Olympia school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Olympia 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 Olympia against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Olympia suits
Families
Schools land around the 43rd percentile and crime safety beats 66%.
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 73% of metro areas and 20% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Olympia
Is Olympia a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Olympia ranks 107th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on clean air, transit, and few empty homes, and lowest on cell coverage and state infrastructure. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Olympia expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $484,835. The overall cost of living runs about 4% above the national average. Set against a $101,223 median income, cost of living beats 73% of metro areas.
Is Olympia safe?
Yes, Olympia is safer than 66% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $413 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Olympia?
July highs average about 82 degrees, and January highs near 49 with lows near 33. That works out to about 94 pleasant days a year, more than 55% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Olympia?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Downtown Olympia, Lacey, and Tumwater. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Olympia good for families?
Schools beat 43% of metro areas, crime safety beats 66%, and childcare runs $1,375 a month.
Is Olympia good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 73% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 17% of metro areas. About 20% of workers already work from home.
Compare Olympia with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Olympia. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Olympia 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.
Olympia detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Olympia: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Olympia: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Olympia: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Olympia: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Olympia 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.