Best PlacesRidgefield, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Ridgefield, 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.
Ridgefield ranks 2,653rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Ridgefield
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.
Ridgefield's strengths and weaknesses
Where Ridgefield ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 96% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 94% of towns
- Household income$123,506 median, better than 94% of towns
- BikingBetter than 91% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 90% of towns
Where Ridgefield ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,375 a month, better than only 7% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 12% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 13% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 17% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 33% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Ridgefield
A household needs to earn about $173,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Ridgefield home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $123,506, 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 Ridgefield's effective rate of 0.74%, 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 Ridgefield
Ridgefield's age mix sits close to the national median, 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 Ridgefield.
Who works in Ridgefield, and how
Work in Ridgefield centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 73%
- Work from home 23%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Ridgefield
Ridgefield has more restaurants and bars per resident than 87% of towns and more parkland per resident than 83% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Ridgefield and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Ridgefield, month by month
Ridgefield sees roughly 105 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 49, with lows near 33. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 49° | 41° | 33° |
| April | 65° | 52° | 39° |
| July | 85° | 69° | 54° |
| October | 67° | 53° | 42° |
Flying in and out of Ridgefield
Portland International sits about 15 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 9.1 million passengers in 2025, with 117 nonstop destinations.
Ridgefield 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 Ridgefield against the other 50,332 towns.
Who Ridgefield suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 88% of towns, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 23% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Ridgefield
Is Ridgefield a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Ridgefield ranks 2,653rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on clean air, population health, and high incomes, and lowest on childcare costs and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Ridgefield expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $668,009. The overall cost of living runs about 9% above the national average. Set against a $123,506 median income, cost of living beats 88% of towns.
Is Ridgefield safe?
Yes, Ridgefield is safer than 90% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $246 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Ridgefield?
July highs average about 85 degrees, and January highs near 49 with lows near 33. That works out to about 105 pleasant days a year, more than 72% of towns.
Is Ridgefield good for families?
Schools beat 77% of towns, crime safety beats 90%, and childcare runs $1,375 a month.
Compare Ridgefield with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Ridgefield. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Ridgefield 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.
Ridgefield detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Ridgefield: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Ridgefield: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Ridgefield: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Ridgefield: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Ridgefield 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.