Best PlacesSpokane, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Spokane metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Costs and crime read low across the board, which puts the choice down to which part suits you. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by SounderBruce, CC BY-SA 4.0, via commons
Spokane ranks 96th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It earns the spot by being affordable and steady rather than flashy: everyday costs run well below the national average, and crime is low. The trade is state infrastructure: the nearest large city and its jobs, flights, and culture are a drive away.
The best neighborhoods in the Spokane metro
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.
The best areas in Spokane
The towns and districts of the Spokane metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Spokane Valley & Veradale
Local pay stretches further, crime runs lower, and incomes run higher.
Country Homes & Colbert
Fewer homes sit empty.
Mead, Chattaroy & Elk
Biking is worse and streets are more car-dependent.
Nine Mile Falls, Colville & Deer Park
It is quieter, though transit reaches fewer jobs.
Liberty Lake & Otis Orchards
Tree cover is thinner.
Cheney, Airway Heights & Medical Lake
Health care is harder to reach and disaster risk is higher.
Downtown Spokane
Homes cost less, though fewer residents vote.
Spokane shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 6% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Spokane's strengths and weaknesses
Spokane ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Low disaster risk, transit, and low taxes carry most of that.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. State infrastructure, an overheated housing market, and childcare costs hold the score down. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Spokane ranks high
- Disaster safetyBetter than 91% of metro areas
- TransitBetter than 86% of metro areas
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 82% of metro areas
- Low vacancyBetter than 81% of metro areas
- BikingBetter than 81% of metro areas
Where Spokane ranks low
- State infrastructureBetter than only 10% of metro areas
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 17% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$1,187 a month, better than only 22% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than only 25% of metro areas
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 33% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Spokane
A household needs to earn about $110,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Spokane home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $85,767, 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 Spokane's effective rate of 0.77%, 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 Spokane
Spokane's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Spokane.
Who works in Spokane, and how
Work in Spokane centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 78%
- Work from home 15%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Spokane
Spokane has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas and less parkland per resident than most metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Spokane and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Spokane growing, and who is moving in?
Spokane has grown about 15% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Seattle, WA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Spokane go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Spokane, month by month
Spokane sees roughly 103 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 91 degrees. January highs sit near 39, with lows near 26. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 39° | 32° | 26° |
| April | 62° | 49° | 36° |
| July | 91° | 74° | 56° |
| October | 63° | 49° | 38° |
Flying in and out of Spokane
The nearest airport, Spokane International, is about 7 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Seattle-Tacoma International, about 229 miles away.
Spokane 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 Spokane against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Spokane suits
Families
Schools land around the 41st percentile and crime safety beats 71%.
Common questions about living in Spokane
Is Spokane a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Spokane ranks 96th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on low disaster risk, transit, and low taxes, and lowest on state infrastructure 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 Spokane expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $423,028. The overall cost of living runs about 8% below the national average. Set against a $85,767 median income, cost of living beats 65% of metro areas.
Is Spokane safe?
Yes, Spokane is safer than 71% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $399 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Spokane?
July highs average about 91 degrees, and January highs near 39 with lows near 26. That works out to about 103 pleasant days a year, more than 61% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Spokane?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Spokane Valley & Veradale, Country Homes & Colbert, and Mead, Chattaroy & Elk. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Spokane good for families?
Schools beat 41% of metro areas, crime safety beats 71%, and childcare runs $1,187 a month.
Is Spokane good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 65% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 49% of metro areas. About 15% of workers already work from home.
Compare Spokane with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Spokane. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Spokane 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.
Spokane detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Spokane: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Spokane: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Spokane: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Spokane: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Spokane 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.