Best PlacesUnderwood, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Underwood, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Underwood ranks 17,185th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Underwood
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.
Underwood's strengths and weaknesses
Where Underwood ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 94% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 88% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 86% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 131 pleasant days a year, better than 86% of towns
- Household income$89,091 median, better than 76% of towns
Where Underwood ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,375 a month, better than only 7% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 7% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 13% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 14% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 18% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Underwood
A household needs to earn about $157,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Underwood home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $89,091, 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 Underwood's effective rate of 0.59%, 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 Underwood
Underwood runs older than the country, 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 Underwood.
Who works in Underwood, and how
Work in Underwood centers on construction and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 73%
- Work from home 24%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Underwood
Underwood has more restaurants and bars per resident than 99% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Underwood and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Underwood, month by month
Underwood sees roughly 131 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 93 degrees. January highs sit near 44, with lows near 30. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 44° | 36° | 30° |
| April | 68° | 54° | 40° |
| July | 93° | 77° | 61° |
| October | 69° | 54° | 42° |
Flying in and out of Underwood
Portland International sits about 52 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 9.1 million passengers in 2025, with 117 nonstop destinations.
Underwood 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 Underwood against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Underwood
Is Underwood a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Underwood ranks 17,185th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on clean air, an educated workforce, and low taxes, and lowest on childcare costs and internet speeds. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Underwood expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $617,217. The overall cost of living runs about 46% above the national average. Set against a $89,091 median income, cost of living beats 18% of towns.
Is Underwood safe?
Yes, Underwood is safer than 71% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $322 per resident a year.
Compare Underwood with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Underwood. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Underwood 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.
Underwood detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Underwood: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Underwood: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Underwood: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Underwood: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Underwood 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.