Best PlacesSeaTac, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around SeaTac, 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.
SeaTac ranks 1,684th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in SeaTac
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.
SeaTac's strengths and weaknesses
Where SeaTac ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 97% of cities
- TransitBetter than 97% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 83% of cities
- BikingBetter than 78% of cities
- Health outlookBetter than 74% of cities
Where SeaTac ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 1% of cities
- Cheap childcare$2,022 a month, better than only 3% of cities
- Crime safetyBetter than only 8% of cities
- State infrastructureBetter than only 9% of cities
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 11% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in SeaTac
A household needs to earn about $147,000 a year to comfortably buy the median SeaTac home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $85,841, 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 SeaTac's effective rate of 0.89%, 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 SeaTac
SeaTac runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for SeaTac.
Who works in SeaTac, and how
Work in SeaTac centers on transportation & warehousing and retail trade. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 73%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 14%
Life in SeaTac
SeaTac has more restaurants and bars per resident than 78% of cities and more parkland per resident than 93% of cities. The coast is about 5 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of SeaTac and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in SeaTac, month by month
SeaTac sees roughly 126 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 81 degrees. January highs sit near 49, with lows near 36. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 49° | 42° | 36° |
| April | 61° | 51° | 42° |
| July | 81° | 67° | 56° |
| October | 63° | 53° | 46° |
Flying in and out of SeaTac
Seattle-Tacoma International sits about 1 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 25.4 million passengers in 2025, with 172 nonstop destinations.
SeaTac 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 SeaTac against the other 2,097 cities.
Who SeaTac suits
Common questions about living in SeaTac
Is SeaTac a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, SeaTac ranks 1,684th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on clean air, transit, and low taxes, and lowest on noise and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is SeaTac expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $554,266. The overall cost of living runs about 11% above the national average. Set against a $85,841 median income, cost of living beats 22% of cities.
Is SeaTac safe?
SeaTac is safer than 8% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $676 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in SeaTac?
July highs average about 81 degrees, and January highs near 49 with lows near 36. That works out to about 126 pleasant days a year, more than 72% of cities.
Is SeaTac good for families?
Schools beat 12% of cities, crime safety beats 8%, and childcare runs $2,022 a month.
Compare SeaTac with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to SeaTac. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in SeaTac 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.
SeaTac detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for SeaTac: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in SeaTac: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of SeaTac: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in SeaTac: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
SeaTac 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.