Best PlacesTumwater, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Tumwater, 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.
Tumwater ranks 8,483rd 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 Tumwater
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.
Tumwater's strengths and weaknesses
Where Tumwater ranks high
- TransitBetter than 99% of towns
- BikingBetter than 98% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 95% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 91% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 90% of towns
Where Tumwater ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,375 a month, better than only 7% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 9% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 11% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 13% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 16% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Tumwater
A household needs to earn about $116,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Tumwater home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $95,150, 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 Tumwater's effective rate of 0.84%, 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 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Tumwater
Tumwater's age mix sits close to the national median, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Tumwater.
Who works in Tumwater, and how
Work in Tumwater centers on public administration and health care & social. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 66%
- Work from home 27%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Tumwater
Tumwater has more restaurants and bars per resident than 72% of towns and more parkland per resident than 91% of towns. The coast is about 32 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Tumwater and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Tumwater, month by month
Tumwater sees roughly 94 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 degrees. January highs sit near 49, with lows near 33. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 49° | 41° | 33° |
| April | 62° | 49° | 36° |
| July | 82° | 65° | 50° |
| October | 63° | 51° | 40° |
Flying in and out of Tumwater
Seattle-Tacoma International sits about 42 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 25.4 million passengers in 2025, with 172 nonstop destinations.
Tumwater 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 Tumwater against the other 50,332 towns.
Who Tumwater suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 27% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Tumwater
Is Tumwater a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Tumwater ranks 8,483rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on transit, biking, and clean air, and lowest on childcare costs and disaster risk. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Tumwater expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $440,316. The overall cost of living runs about 3% above the national average. Set against a $95,150 median income, cost of living beats 68% of towns.
Is Tumwater safe?
Tumwater is safer than 53% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $402 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Tumwater?
July highs average about 82 degrees, and January highs near 49 with lows near 33. That works out to about 94 pleasant days a year, more than 64% of towns.
Is Tumwater good for families?
Schools beat 56% of towns, crime safety beats 53%, and childcare runs $1,375 a month.
Compare Tumwater with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Tumwater. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Tumwater 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.
Tumwater detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Tumwater: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Tumwater: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Tumwater: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Tumwater: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Tumwater 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.