Best PlacesSteilacoom, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Steilacoom, 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.
Steilacoom ranks 11,038th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on biking by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Steilacoom
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.
Steilacoom's strengths and weaknesses
Where Steilacoom ranks high
- BikingBetter than 98% of towns
- TransitBetter than 97% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 95% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 94% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 91% of towns
Where Steilacoom ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,327 a month, better than only 8% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 13% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 18% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 23% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 24% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Steilacoom
A household needs to earn about $166,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Steilacoom home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $103,530, 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 Steilacoom's effective rate of 0.74%, 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 Steilacoom
Steilacoom'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 Steilacoom.
Who works in Steilacoom, and how
Work in Steilacoom centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 70%
- Work from home 23%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Steilacoom
Steilacoom has more parkland per resident than 92% of towns. The coast is about 18 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Steilacoom and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Steilacoom, month by month
Steilacoom sees roughly 82 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 81 degrees. January highs sit near 49, with lows near 32. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 49° | 40° | 32° |
| April | 62° | 49° | 37° |
| July | 81° | 67° | 51° |
| October | 63° | 51° | 40° |
Flying in and out of Steilacoom
Seattle-Tacoma International sits about 23 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 25.4 million passengers in 2025, with 172 nonstop destinations.
Steilacoom 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 Steilacoom against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Steilacoom
Is Steilacoom a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Steilacoom ranks 11,038th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on biking, transit, and cell coverage, and lowest on childcare costs and state infrastructure. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Steilacoom expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $640,815. The overall cost of living runs about 15% above the national average. Set against a $103,530 median income, cost of living beats 66% of towns.
Is Steilacoom safe?
Steilacoom is safer than 24% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $552 per resident a year.
Compare Steilacoom with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Steilacoom. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Steilacoom 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.
Steilacoom detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Steilacoom: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Steilacoom: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Steilacoom: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Steilacoom: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Steilacoom 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.