Best PlacesSaginaw, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Saginaw, 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.
Saginaw ranks 17,262nd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on what local pay buys by a wide margin, and long commutes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Saginaw
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.
Saginaw's strengths and weaknesses
Where Saginaw ranks high
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 97% of towns
- Household income$138,409 median, better than 96% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 96% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 89% of towns
Where Saginaw ranks low
- Short commute45.0 minutes each way, better than only 2% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 4% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,375 a month, better than only 7% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 8% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Saginaw
A household needs to earn about $96,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Saginaw home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $138,409, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
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 Saginaw's effective rate of 0.74%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Saginaw
Saginaw runs older than the country, though fewer residents are over 65 than the national share, 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 Saginaw.
Who works in Saginaw, and how
Work in Saginaw centers on agriculture & forestry and transportation & warehousing. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 83%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Saginaw
The coast is about 33 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Saginaw, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Saginaw, month by month
Saginaw sees roughly 92 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 degrees. January highs sit near 48, with lows near 33. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 48° | 40° | 33° |
| April | 62° | 48° | 36° |
| July | 82° | 65° | 51° |
| October | 63° | 51° | 40° |
Flying in and out of Saginaw
Seattle-Tacoma International sits about 59 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 25.4 million passengers in 2025, with 172 nonstop destinations.
Saginaw 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 Saginaw against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Saginaw
Is Saginaw a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Saginaw ranks 17,262nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on what local pay buys, high incomes, and clean air, and lowest on long commutes and education levels. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Saginaw expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $369,517. The overall cost of living runs about 7% below the national average. Set against a $138,409 median income, cost of living beats 97% of towns.
Is Saginaw safe?
Saginaw is safer than 34% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $478 per resident a year.
Compare Saginaw with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Saginaw. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Saginaw 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.
Saginaw detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Saginaw: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Saginaw: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Saginaw: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Saginaw: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Saginaw 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.