Best PlacesRenton, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Renton, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Distance to the water drives a lot of the difference between one part and the next. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Renton ranks 1,059th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and crime is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Renton
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.
The best areas in Renton
The parts of Renton, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first.
Maple Heights-Lake Desire
Highlands Park & Kennydale
North Renton
Scores across Renton run from about the 17th to the 96th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Renton's strengths and weaknesses
Where Renton ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 96% of cities
- Health outlookBetter than 90% of cities
- TransitBetter than 89% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 83% of cities
- Nice weatherabout 148 pleasant days a year, better than 81% of cities
Where Renton ranks low
- Crime safetyBetter than only 3% of cities
- Cheap childcare$2,022 a month, better than only 3% of cities
- State infrastructureBetter than only 9% of cities
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 14% of cities
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 20% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Renton
A household needs to earn about $179,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Renton home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $110,776, 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 Renton's effective rate of 0.88%, 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 Renton
Renton runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Renton.
Who works in Renton, and how
Work in Renton centers on retail trade and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 71%
- Work from home 22%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Renton
Renton has more restaurants and bars per resident than 73% of cities and more parkland per resident than 92% of cities. The coast is about 13 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Renton and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Renton, month by month
Renton sees roughly 148 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 81 degrees. January highs sit near 50, with lows near 36. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 50° | 42° | 36° |
| April | 62° | 52° | 42° |
| July | 81° | 69° | 58° |
| October | 63° | 54° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Renton
Seattle-Tacoma International sits about 6 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 25.4 million passengers in 2025, with 172 nonstop destinations.
Renton 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 Renton against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Renton suits
Common questions about living in Renton
Is Renton a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Renton ranks 1,059th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on clean air, population health, and transit, and lowest on crime and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Renton expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $677,614. The overall cost of living runs about 19% above the national average. Set against a $110,776 median income, cost of living beats 50% of cities.
Is Renton safe?
Renton is safer than 3% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $919 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Renton?
July highs average about 81 degrees, and January highs near 50 with lows near 36. That works out to about 148 pleasant days a year, more than 81% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Renton?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Maple Heights-Lake Desire, Highlands Park & Kennydale, and North Renton. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Compare Renton with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Renton. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Renton 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.
Renton detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Renton: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Renton: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Renton: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Renton: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Renton 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.