Best PlacesQuilcene, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Quilcene, 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.
Quilcene ranks 36,091st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and long commutes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Quilcene
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.
Quilcene's strengths and weaknesses
Where Quilcene ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 96% of towns
- TransitBetter than 90% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 87% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 86% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 84% of towns
Where Quilcene ranks low
- Short commute41.6 minutes each way, better than only 4% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,375 a month, better than only 7% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 10% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 13% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 16% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Quilcene
A household needs to earn about $86,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Quilcene home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $63,128, 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 Quilcene's effective rate of 0.59%, 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 10 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Quilcene
Quilcene 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 Quilcene.
Who works in Quilcene, and how
Work in Quilcene centers on manufacturing and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 60%
- Work from home 25%
- Transit, walk, or bike 15%
Life in Quilcene
The coast is about 28 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Quilcene, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Quilcene, month by month
Quilcene sees roughly 107 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 81 degrees. January highs sit near 47, with lows near 33. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 47° | 40° | 33° |
| April | 61° | 48° | 37° |
| July | 81° | 65° | 50° |
| October | 62° | 51° | 41° |
Flying in and out of Quilcene
The nearest airport, Seattle Paine Field International, is about 27 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Seattle-Tacoma International, about 36 miles away.
Quilcene 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 Quilcene against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Quilcene
Is Quilcene a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Quilcene ranks 36,091st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on clean air, transit, and big-city access, and lowest on long commutes and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Quilcene expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $337,349. The overall cost of living runs about 2% above the national average. Set against a $63,128 median income, cost of living beats 18% of towns.
Is Quilcene safe?
Quilcene is safer than 16% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $616 per resident a year.
Compare Quilcene with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Quilcene. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Quilcene 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.
Quilcene detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Quilcene: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Quilcene: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Quilcene: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Quilcene: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Quilcene 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.