Best PlacesRonald, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Ronald, 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.
Ronald ranks 24,164th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on a strong job market by a wide margin, and long commutes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Ronald
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.
Ronald's strengths and weaknesses
Where Ronald ranks high
- Local economyBetter than 91% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 88% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 88% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 88% of towns
- BikingBetter than 86% of towns
Where Ronald ranks low
- Short commute46.7 minutes each way, better than only 1% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 3% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 5% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 13% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Ronald
A household needs to earn about $188,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Ronald home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $97,674, 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 Ronald's effective rate of 0.67%, 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 Ronald
Ronald 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 Ronald.
Who works in Ronald, and how
Work in Ronald centers on health care & social and construction. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 66%
- Work from home 31%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Ronald
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Ronald.
What the weather is like in Ronald, month by month
Ronald sees roughly 85 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 72 degrees. January highs sit near 34, with lows near 24. The comfortable stretch runs July and August.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 34° | 28° | 24° |
| April | 48° | 38° | 31° |
| July | 72° | 59° | 49° |
| October | 51° | 43° | 37° |
Flying in and out of Ronald
The nearest airport, Pangborn Memorial, is about 40 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Seattle-Tacoma International, about 61 miles away.
Ronald 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 Ronald against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Ronald
Is Ronald a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Ronald ranks 24,164th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on a strong job market, an educated workforce, and clean air, and lowest on long commutes 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 Ronald expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $732,062. The overall cost of living runs about 15% above the national average. Set against a $97,674 median income, cost of living beats 71% of towns.
Is Ronald safe?
Yes, Ronald is safer than 82% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $324 per resident a year.
Compare Ronald with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Ronald. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Ronald 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.
Ronald detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Ronald: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Ronald: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Ronald: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Ronald: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Ronald 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.