Best PlacesPeaceful Valley, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Peaceful Valley, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Peaceful Valley ranks 41,389th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Peaceful Valley
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.
Peaceful Valley's strengths and weaknesses
Where Peaceful Valley ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 96% of towns
- TransitBetter than 94% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 90% of towns
- QuietBetter than 86% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 86% of towns
Where Peaceful Valley ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 2% of towns
- Short commute44.2 minutes each way, better than only 2% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,516 a month, better than only 2% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 6% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 11% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Peaceful Valley
A household needs to earn about $116,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Peaceful Valley home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $56,838, 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 Peaceful Valley's effective rate of 0.53%, 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 Peaceful Valley
Peaceful Valley runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Peaceful Valley.
Who works in Peaceful Valley, and how
Work in Peaceful Valley centers on retail trade and manufacturing. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 76%
- Work from home 18%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Peaceful Valley
The coast is about 38 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Peaceful Valley, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Peaceful Valley, month by month
Peaceful Valley sees roughly 108 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 76 degrees. January highs sit near 48, with lows near 33. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 48° | 40° | 33° |
| April | 60° | 50° | 40° |
| July | 76° | 65° | 54° |
| October | 61° | 51° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Peaceful Valley
The nearest airport, Bellingham International, is about 20 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Seattle-Tacoma International, about 103 miles away.
Peaceful Valley 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 Peaceful Valley against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Peaceful Valley
Is Peaceful Valley a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Peaceful Valley ranks 41,389th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on clean air, transit, and fast internet, and lowest on an overheated housing market and long commutes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Peaceful Valley expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $461,392. The overall cost of living runs about 11% above the national average. Set against a $56,838 median income, cost of living beats 6% of towns.
Is Peaceful Valley safe?
Peaceful Valley is safer than 16% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $654 per resident a year.
Compare Peaceful Valley with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Peaceful Valley. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Peaceful Valley 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.
Peaceful Valley detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Peaceful Valley: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Peaceful Valley: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Peaceful Valley: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Peaceful Valley: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Peaceful Valley 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.