Best PlacesOrchards, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Orchards, 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.
Orchards ranks 811th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and state infrastructure ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Orchards
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 Orchards
The parts of Orchards, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first.
Mountain View Meadows-Orchards
North Sifton-Orchards Area
Orchards Area
Scores across Orchards run from about the 41st to the 90th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Orchards' strengths and weaknesses
Where Orchards ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 93% of cities
- Crime safetyBetter than 89% of cities
- Local economyBetter than 88% of cities
- Low vacancyBetter than 85% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 83% of cities
Where Orchards ranks low
- State infrastructureBetter than only 9% of cities
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 11% of cities
- QuietBetter than only 14% of cities
- Cheap childcare$1,375 a month, better than only 24% of cities
- Internet speedBetter than only 27% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Orchards
A household needs to earn about $121,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Orchards home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $99,506, 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 Orchards' effective rate of 0.83%, 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 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Orchards
Orchards runs younger than the country, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Orchards.
Who works in Orchards, and how
Work in Orchards centers on manufacturing 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 82%
- Work from home 15%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Orchards
Orchards has more parkland per resident than 78% of cities. That concentrates in some parts of Orchards and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Orchards, month by month
Orchards sees roughly 114 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 49, with lows near 36. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 49° | 42° | 36° |
| April | 66° | 53° | 43° |
| July | 86° | 71° | 59° |
| October | 67° | 56° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Orchards
Portland International sits about 8 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 9.1 million passengers in 2025, with 117 nonstop destinations.
Orchards 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 Orchards against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Orchards suits
Families
Schools land around the 43rd percentile and crime safety beats 89%.
Common questions about living in Orchards
Is Orchards a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Orchards ranks 811th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on clean air, low crime, and a strong job market, and lowest on state infrastructure and thin health care access. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Orchards expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $462,254. The overall cost of living runs about 6% above the national average. Set against a $99,506 median income, cost of living beats 50% of cities.
Is Orchards safe?
Yes, Orchards is safer than 89% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $278 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Orchards?
July highs average about 86 degrees, and January highs near 49 with lows near 36. That works out to about 114 pleasant days a year, more than 68% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Orchards?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Mountain View Meadows-Orchards, North Sifton-Orchards Area, and Orchards Area. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Compare Orchards with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Orchards. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Orchards 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.
Orchards detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Orchards: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Orchards: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Orchards: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Orchards: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Orchards 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.