Best PlacesSappho, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Sappho, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Sappho ranks 42,236th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and internet speeds rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Sappho
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.
Sappho's strengths and weaknesses
Where Sappho ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 96% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
- QuietBetter than 89% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 86% of towns
- Short commute21.4 minutes each way, better than 82% of towns
Where Sappho ranks low
- Internet speedBetter than only 1% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 1% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 3% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 6% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,375 a month, better than only 7% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Sappho
A household needs to earn about $76,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Sappho home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $54,499, 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 Sappho'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 Sappho
Sappho 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 Sappho.
Who works in Sappho, and how
Work in Sappho centers on public administration and hospitality & food. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 85%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Sappho
The coast is about 63 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Sappho, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Sappho, month by month
Sappho sees roughly 83 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 71 degrees. January highs sit near 50, with lows near 35. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 50° | 42° | 35° |
| April | 58° | 47° | 38° |
| July | 71° | 60° | 51° |
| October | 62° | 51° | 42° |
Flying in and out of Sappho
The nearest airport, Friday Harbor, is about 65 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Seattle-Tacoma International, about 106 miles away.
Sappho 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 Sappho against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Sappho
Is Sappho a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Sappho ranks 42,236th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on clean air, tree cover, and quiet, and lowest on internet speeds and civic engagement. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Sappho expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $294,354. The overall cost of living runs about 6% above the national average. Set against a $54,499 median income, cost of living beats 6% of towns.
Is Sappho safe?
Sappho is safer than 33% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $512 per resident a year.
Compare Sappho with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Sappho. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Sappho 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.
Sappho detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Sappho: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Sappho: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Sappho: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Sappho: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Sappho 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.