Best PlacesSelawik, AK Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Selawik, 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.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Selawik ranks 45,361st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and thin health care access ranks lowest.

#45,361
of 50,333 towns
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 50,333 towns
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Selawik

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Selawik area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

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.

Selawik's strengths and weaknesses

Top 1%Clean air
Top 1%Short commutes
Top 1%Low property taxes
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Selawik with other towns.

Where Selawik ranks high

  • Air qualityBetter than 99% of towns
  • Short commute6.4 minutes each way, better than 99% of towns
  • Low property taxBetter than 99% of towns
  • Heat safetyBetter than 99% of towns
  • Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 99% of towns

Where Selawik ranks low

  • Healthcare accessBetter than only 1% of towns
  • Local economyBetter than only 1% of towns
  • Educational attainmentBetter than only 1% of towns
  • Internet speedBetter than only 1% of towns
  • Crime safetyBetter than only 2% of towns

What it costs to buy a home in Selawik

A household needs to earn about $21,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Selawik home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $52,963, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$21,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$493
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $79,764 home
Median rent
$644
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$407
Property tax$60
Homeowners insurance$27

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 a national 0.90% effective rate, since no local rate is published, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.

Renting versus buying

At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 4 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Selawik

Selawik runs younger than the country, and households here run larger than average.

Median age
18
younger than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
9%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
4.7
above the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1847%
18 to 3424%
35 to 4912%
50 to 648%
65 and older9%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Selawik.


Who works in Selawik, and how

Work in Selawik centers on public administration and health care & social. Unemployment runs well above the national rate.

Work from home
11%
below the national average
Unemployment
29.7%
above the national average

Largest industries

Public administration30%
Health care & social22%
Retail trade15%
Education11%
Utilities9%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 17%
  • Work from home 11%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 72%

Life in Selawik

The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Selawik.


What the weather is like in Selawik, month by month

Selawik sees roughly 129 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 67 degrees. January highs sit near 6, with lows near -11. The comfortable stretch runs July.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January-3°-11°
April28°19°
July67°59°52°
October34°28°23°

Flying in and out of Selawik

The nearest airport, Selawik, is about 2 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Ted Stevens Anchorage International, about 482 miles away.

Nearest airport
WLK
Selawik, about 2 miles
Airport size
Nonprimary
6 nonstop destinations
Average drive
8 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Selawik

Schools across Selawik average a D+, better than 19% of towns.

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Selawik school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Selawik 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 Selawik against the other 50,332 towns.


Common questions about living in Selawik

Is Selawik a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Selawik ranks 45,361st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on clean air, short commutes, and low property taxes, and lowest on thin health care access and a weak job market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Selawik expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $79,764. The overall cost of living runs about 52% above the national average. Set against a $52,963 median income, cost of living beats 3% of towns.

Is Selawik safe?

Selawik is safer than 2% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $1,537 per resident a year.


Compare Selawik with other towns


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Selawik. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Selawik 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.

Selawik detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Selawik: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Selawik: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Selawik: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Selawik: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Selawik detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.