Best PlacesSultan, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Sultan, 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.
Sultan ranks 7,178th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on transit by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Sultan
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.
Sultan's strengths and weaknesses
Where Sultan ranks high
- TransitBetter than 97% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 96% of towns
- BikingBetter than 95% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 93% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 90% of towns
Where Sultan ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,516 a month, better than only 2% of towns
- Short commute40.8 minutes each way, better than only 4% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 13% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 18% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Sultan
A household needs to earn about $139,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Sultan home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $102,699, 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 Sultan'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 Sultan
Sultan runs younger than the country, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Sultan.
Who works in Sultan, and how
Work in Sultan centers on manufacturing and education. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 78%
- Work from home 16%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Sultan
Sultan has more restaurants and bars per resident than 77% of towns and more parkland per resident than 98% of towns. The coast is about 30 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Sultan and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Sultan, month by month
Sultan sees roughly 137 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 76 degrees. January highs sit near 48, with lows near 36. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 48° | 42° | 36° |
| April | 59° | 50° | 42° |
| July | 76° | 64° | 55° |
| October | 60° | 52° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Sultan
The nearest airport, Seattle Paine Field International, is about 23 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Seattle-Tacoma International, about 38 miles away.
Sultan 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 Sultan against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Sultan
Is Sultan a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Sultan ranks 7,178th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on transit, clean air, and biking, and lowest on childcare costs and long commutes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Sultan expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $532,126. The overall cost of living runs about 9% above the national average. Set against a $102,699 median income, cost of living beats 68% of towns.
Is Sultan safe?
Yes, Sultan is safer than 70% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $336 per resident a year.
Compare Sultan with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Sultan. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Sultan 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.
Sultan detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Sultan: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Sultan: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Sultan: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Sultan: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Sultan 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.