Best PlacesTacoma, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Tacoma, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Tacoma ranks 244th of 445 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on state infrastructure and internet speeds. It does better on clean air, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in Tacoma
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 Tacoma
The parts of Tacoma, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the city.
West End & North End
More adults hold degrees, local pay stretches further, and incomes run higher.
Northeast Tacoma
Crime runs lower, though streets are more car-dependent.
Eastside Enact
More households have young kids, though biking is worse.
Central & New Tacoma
Transit reaches more jobs, though tree cover is thinner.
South End
Fewer residents vote and it is noisier.
South Tacoma
Prices have run up less, though health care is harder to reach.
Tacoma shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 8% of the country and others in the top 3%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Tacoma's strengths and weaknesses
Tacoma lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Clean air, few empty homes, and transit carry most of that.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. State infrastructure, internet speeds, and crime hold the score down. The detail is below, and the map is where it turns into a choice of neighborhood rather than just a place.
Where Tacoma ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 96% of cities
- Low vacancyBetter than 79% of cities
- TransitBetter than 77% of cities
- WalkabilityBetter than 75% of cities
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 74% of cities
Where Tacoma ranks low
- State infrastructureBetter than only 5% of cities
- Internet speedBetter than only 11% of cities
- Crime safetyBetter than only 21% of cities
- Short commute29.4 minutes each way, better than only 23% of cities
- Cheap childcare$1,327 a month, better than only 26% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Tacoma
A household needs to earn about $137,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Tacoma home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $95,053, 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 Tacoma's effective rate of 0.86%, 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 Tacoma
Tacoma'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 Tacoma.
Who works in Tacoma, and how
Work in Tacoma 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 76%
- Work from home 15%
- Transit, walk, or bike 9%
Life in Tacoma
Tacoma has more restaurants and bars per resident than 74% of cities and more parkland per resident than 86% of cities. The coast is about 6 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Tacoma and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Tacoma, month by month
Tacoma sees roughly 104 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 Tacoma
Seattle-Tacoma International sits about 17 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 25.4 million passengers in 2025, with 172 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Tacoma
Schools across Tacoma average a C+, better than 37% of cities.
Top middle schools
- Lakeridge Middle SchoolA · 60% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Tacoma school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Tacoma 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 Tacoma against the other 444 cities.
Who Tacoma suits
Retirees
Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.
Common questions about living in Tacoma
Is Tacoma a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Tacoma ranks 244th of 445 cities. It scores highest on clean air, few empty homes, and transit, and lowest on state infrastructure and internet speeds. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Tacoma expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $521,233. The overall cost of living runs about 11% above the national average. Set against a $95,053 median income, cost of living beats 40% of cities.
Is Tacoma safe?
Tacoma is safer than 21% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $724 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Tacoma?
July highs average about 81 degrees, and January highs near 49 with lows near 32. That works out to about 104 pleasant days a year, more than 49% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Tacoma?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are West End & North End, Northeast Tacoma, and Eastside Enact. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Tacoma good for families?
Schools beat 37% of cities, crime safety beats 21%, and childcare runs $1,327 a month.
Is Tacoma good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 40% of cities, though advertised internet speeds beat only 11% of cities. About 15% of workers already work from home.
Compare Tacoma with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Tacoma. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Tacoma 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.
Tacoma detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Tacoma: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Tacoma: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Tacoma: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Tacoma: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Tacoma 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.