Best PlacesPort Townsend, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Port Townsend, 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.
Port Townsend ranks 10,207th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on civic engagement by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Port Townsend
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.
Port Townsend's strengths and weaknesses
Where Port Townsend ranks high
- Voter turnoutBetter than 98% of towns
- BikingBetter than 98% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 97% of towns
- Short commute16.0 minutes each way, better than 96% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 95% of towns
Where Port Townsend ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 3% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,375 a month, better than only 7% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 13% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 22% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 26% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Port Townsend
A household needs to earn about $145,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Port Townsend home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $71,758, 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 Port Townsend's effective rate of 0.67%, 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 Port Townsend
Port Townsend 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 Port Townsend.
Who works in Port Townsend, and how
Work in Port Townsend centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 62%
- Work from home 26%
- Transit, walk, or bike 12%
Life in Port Townsend
Port Townsend has more restaurants and bars per resident than 86% of towns and more parkland per resident than 90% of towns. The coast is about 2 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Port Townsend and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Port Townsend, month by month
Port Townsend sees roughly 111 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 69 degrees. January highs sit near 50, with lows near 36. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 50° | 43° | 36° |
| April | 58° | 50° | 42° |
| July | 69° | 60° | 53° |
| October | 61° | 52° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Port Townsend
The nearest airport, Seattle Paine Field International, is about 28 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Seattle-Tacoma International, about 50 miles away.
Port Townsend 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 Port Townsend against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Port Townsend
Is Port Townsend a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Port Townsend ranks 10,207th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on civic engagement, biking, and clean air, and lowest on an overheated housing market and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Port Townsend expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $563,467. The overall cost of living runs about 4% above the national average. Set against a $71,758 median income, cost of living beats 36% of towns.
Is Port Townsend safe?
Port Townsend is safer than 26% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $564 per resident a year.
Compare Port Townsend with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Port Townsend. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Port Townsend 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.
Port Townsend detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Port Townsend: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Port Townsend: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Port Townsend: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Port Townsend: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Port Townsend 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.