Best PlacesRochester, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Rochester, 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.
Rochester ranks 17,667th 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 Rochester
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.
Rochester's strengths and weaknesses
Where Rochester ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 94% of towns
- TransitBetter than 89% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than 87% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 86% of towns
- BikingBetter than 84% of towns
Where Rochester ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,375 a month, better than only 7% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 8% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 13% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 15% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 16% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Rochester
A household needs to earn about $118,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Rochester home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $95,652, 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 Rochester's effective rate of 0.72%, 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 Rochester
Rochester'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 Rochester.
Who works in Rochester, and how
Work in Rochester centers on public administration and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 13%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Rochester
The coast is about 47 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Rochester, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Rochester, month by month
Rochester sees roughly 112 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 81 degrees. January highs sit near 48, with lows near 37. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 48° | 41° | 37° |
| April | 61° | 50° | 41° |
| July | 81° | 66° | 54° |
| October | 63° | 51° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Rochester
Seattle-Tacoma International sits about 56 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 25.4 million passengers in 2025, with 172 nonstop destinations.
Rochester 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 Rochester against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Rochester
Is Rochester a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Rochester ranks 17,667th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on clean air, transit, and few empty homes, and lowest on childcare costs and an overheated housing market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Rochester expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $458,113. The overall cost of living runs about 6% above the national average. Set against a $95,652 median income, cost of living beats 59% of towns.
Is Rochester safe?
Yes, Rochester is safer than 68% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $342 per resident a year.
Compare Rochester with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Rochester. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Rochester 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.
Rochester detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Rochester: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Rochester: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Rochester: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Rochester: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Rochester 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.