Best PlacesPleasant Valley, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Pleasant Valley, 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.
Pleasant Valley ranks 3,952nd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Pleasant 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.
Pleasant Valley's strengths and weaknesses
Where Pleasant Valley ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 96% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 95% of towns
- Household income$116,566 median, better than 92% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 92% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than 90% of towns
Where Pleasant Valley ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,516 a month, better than only 2% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 13% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 20% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 24% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 36% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Pleasant Valley
A household needs to earn about $151,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Pleasant Valley home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $116,566, 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 Pleasant Valley's effective rate of 0.68%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Pleasant Valley
Pleasant Valley 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 Pleasant Valley.
Who works in Pleasant Valley, and how
Work in Pleasant Valley centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 86%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Pleasant Valley
The coast is about 12 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Pleasant Valley, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Pleasant Valley, month by month
Pleasant Valley sees roughly 124 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 Pleasant Valley
The nearest airport, Bellingham International, is about 11 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Seattle-Tacoma International, about 103 miles away.
Pleasant 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 Pleasant Valley against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Pleasant Valley
Is Pleasant Valley a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Pleasant Valley ranks 3,952nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on clean air, population health, and high incomes, and lowest on childcare costs and state infrastructure. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Pleasant Valley expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $588,187. The overall cost of living runs about 11% above the national average. Set against a $116,566 median income, cost of living beats 78% of towns.
Is Pleasant Valley safe?
Yes, Pleasant Valley is safer than 88% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $255 per resident a year.
Compare Pleasant Valley with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Pleasant Valley. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Pleasant 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.
Pleasant Valley detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Pleasant Valley: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Pleasant Valley: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Pleasant Valley: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Pleasant Valley: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Pleasant 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.