Best PlacesOnion Creek, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Onion Creek, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Onion Creek ranks 43,360th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. Long commutes pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on low taxes.
The best neighborhoods in Onion Creek
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.
Onion Creek's strengths and weaknesses
Where Onion Creek ranks high
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 86% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 80% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 76% of towns
- QuietBetter than 76% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 71% of towns
Where Onion Creek ranks low
- Short commute47.9 minutes each way, better than only 1% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 2% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 9% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 11% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Onion Creek
A household needs to earn about $76,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Onion Creek home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $51,816, 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 Onion Creek's effective rate of 0.62%, 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 Onion Creek
Onion Creek runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Onion Creek.
Who works in Onion Creek, and how
Work in Onion Creek centers on construction and retail trade. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Onion Creek
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Onion Creek.
What the weather is like in Onion Creek, month by month
Onion Creek sees roughly 87 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.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 36° | 29° | 21° |
| April | 61° | 46° | 31° |
| July | 89° | 70° | 48° |
| October | 61° | 45° | 31° |
Flying in and out of Onion Creek
The nearest airport, Spokane International, is about 84 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Seattle-Tacoma International, about 227 miles away.
Onion Creek 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 Onion Creek against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Onion Creek
Is Onion Creek a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Onion Creek ranks 43,360th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low taxes, low disaster risk, and cheap car insurance, and lowest on long commutes and internet speeds. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Onion Creek expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $297,748. The overall cost of living runs about 8% below the national average. Set against a $51,816 median income, cost of living beats 11% of towns.
Is Onion Creek safe?
Yes, Onion Creek is safer than 62% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $362 per resident a year.
Compare Onion Creek with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Onion Creek. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Onion Creek 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.
Onion Creek detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Onion Creek: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Onion Creek: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Onion Creek: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Onion Creek: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Onion Creek 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.