Best PlacesPalisades, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Palisades, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Palisades ranks 17,205th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and civic engagement ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Palisades
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.
Palisades' strengths and weaknesses
Where Palisades ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 98% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 179 pleasant days a year, better than 98% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 96% of towns
- Short commute20.1 minutes each way, better than 87% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 86% of towns
Where Palisades ranks low
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 2% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 3% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 3% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 11% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 13% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Palisades
A household needs to earn about $93,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Palisades home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $97,804, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
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 Palisades' effective rate of 0.69%, 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 Palisades
Palisades runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Palisades.
Who works in Palisades, and how
Work in Palisades centers on retail trade and agriculture & forestry. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 80%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 8%
Life in Palisades
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Palisades.
What the weather is like in Palisades, month by month
Palisades sees roughly 179 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 35, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, August, and September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 35° | 29° | 23° |
| April | 64° | 51° | 39° |
| July | 92° | 77° | 62° |
| October | 63° | 51° | 40° |
Flying in and out of Palisades
The nearest airport, Pangborn Memorial, is about 14 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Seattle-Tacoma International, about 113 miles away.
Palisades 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 Palisades against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Palisades
Is Palisades a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Palisades ranks 17,205th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on clean air, the weather, and a strong job market, and lowest on civic engagement and cell coverage. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Palisades expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $361,022. The overall cost of living runs about 1% below the national average. Set against a $97,804 median income, cost of living beats 73% of towns.
Is Palisades safe?
Palisades is safer than 30% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $495 per resident a year.
Compare Palisades with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Palisades. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Palisades 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.
Palisades detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Palisades: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Palisades: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Palisades: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Palisades: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Palisades 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.