Best PlacesSaxon, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Saxon, 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.
Saxon ranks 22,402nd 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 Saxon
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.
Saxon's strengths and weaknesses
Where Saxon ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 97% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 89% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 86% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 86% of towns
Where Saxon ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,516 a month, better than only 2% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 9% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 13% of towns
- Short commute34.3 minutes each way, better than only 16% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Saxon
A household needs to earn about $117,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Saxon home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $88,500, 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 Saxon's effective rate of 0.69%, 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 Saxon
Saxon runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Saxon.
Who works in Saxon, and how
Work in Saxon centers on construction and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 9%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Saxon
The coast is about 32 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Saxon, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Saxon, month by month
Saxon sees roughly 100 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 76 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 | 60° | 50° | 40° |
| July | 76° | 65° | 54° |
| October | 61° | 51° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Saxon
The nearest airport, Bellingham International, is about 16 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Seattle-Tacoma International, about 86 miles away.
Saxon 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 Saxon against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Saxon
Is Saxon a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Saxon ranks 22,402nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on clean air, tree cover, and population health, 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 Saxon expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $453,775. The overall cost of living runs about 17% above the national average. Set against a $88,500 median income, cost of living beats 36% of towns.
Is Saxon safe?
Saxon is safer than 36% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $491 per resident a year.
Compare Saxon with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Saxon. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Saxon 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.
Saxon detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Saxon: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Saxon: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Saxon: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Saxon: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Saxon 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.