Best PlacesPuyallup, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Puyallup, 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.
Puyallup ranks 1,076th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and state infrastructure ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Puyallup
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.
Puyallup's strengths and weaknesses
Where Puyallup ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 92% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 83% of cities
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 70% of cities
- Household income$111,820 median, better than 68% of cities
- Low vacancyBetter than 64% of cities
Where Puyallup ranks low
- State infrastructureBetter than only 9% of cities
- Short commute32.1 minutes each way, better than only 14% of cities
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 20% of cities
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 22% of cities
- Cell coverageBetter than only 24% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Puyallup
A household needs to earn about $137,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Puyallup home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $111,820, 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 Puyallup's effective rate of 0.89%, 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 Puyallup
Puyallup's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Puyallup.
Who works in Puyallup, and how
Work in Puyallup 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 83%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Puyallup
Puyallup has more parkland per resident than 84% of cities. The coast is about 15 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Puyallup and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Puyallup, month by month
Puyallup sees roughly 99 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 Puyallup
Seattle-Tacoma International sits about 20 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 25.4 million passengers in 2025, with 172 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Puyallup
Schools across Puyallup average a B−, better than 43% of cities.
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Puyallup school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Puyallup 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 Puyallup against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Puyallup suits
Common questions about living in Puyallup
Is Puyallup a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Puyallup ranks 1,076th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on clean air, low taxes, and cheap car insurance, and lowest on state infrastructure and long commutes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Puyallup expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $516,551. The overall cost of living runs about 9% above the national average. Set against a $111,820 median income, cost of living beats 60% of cities.
Is Puyallup safe?
Puyallup is safer than 55% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $421 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Puyallup?
July highs average about 82 degrees, and January highs near 49 with lows near 35. That works out to about 99 pleasant days a year, more than 60% of cities.
Is Puyallup good for families?
Schools beat 43% of cities, crime safety beats 55%, and childcare runs $1,327 a month.
Compare Puyallup with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Puyallup. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Puyallup 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.
Puyallup detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Puyallup: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Puyallup: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Puyallup: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Puyallup: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Puyallup 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.