Best PlacesPrairie Ridge, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Prairie Ridge, 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.
Prairie Ridge ranks 6,729th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on high incomes by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Prairie Ridge
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.
Prairie Ridge's strengths and weaknesses
Where Prairie Ridge ranks high
- Household income$130,764 median, better than 95% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than 91% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 90% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 88% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 88% of towns
Where Prairie Ridge ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,327 a month, better than only 8% of towns
- Short commute35.9 minutes each way, better than only 12% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 13% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 14% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 20% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Prairie Ridge
A household needs to earn about $131,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Prairie Ridge home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $130,764; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Prairie Ridge's effective rate of 0.79%, 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 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Prairie Ridge
Prairie Ridge 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 Prairie Ridge.
Who works in Prairie Ridge, and how
Work in Prairie Ridge centers on manufacturing and retail trade. 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 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Prairie Ridge
The coast is about 23 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Prairie Ridge, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Prairie Ridge, month by month
Prairie Ridge sees roughly 96 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 degrees. January highs sit near 49, with lows near 35. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 49° | 41° | 35° |
| April | 61° | 49° | 40° |
| July | 82° | 67° | 54° |
| October | 63° | 52° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Prairie Ridge
Seattle-Tacoma International sits about 22 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 25.4 million passengers in 2025, with 172 nonstop destinations.
Prairie Ridge 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 Prairie Ridge against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Prairie Ridge
Is Prairie Ridge a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Prairie Ridge ranks 6,729th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on high incomes, few empty homes, and what local pay buys, and lowest on childcare costs and long commutes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Prairie Ridge expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $502,361. The overall cost of living runs about 10% above the national average. Set against a $130,764 median income, cost of living beats 90% of towns.
Is Prairie Ridge safe?
Yes, Prairie Ridge is safer than 85% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $271 per resident a year.
Compare Prairie Ridge with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Prairie Ridge. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Prairie Ridge 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.
Prairie Ridge detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Prairie Ridge: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Prairie Ridge: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Prairie Ridge: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Prairie Ridge: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Prairie Ridge 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.