Best PlacesVan Zandt, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Van Zandt, 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.
Van Zandt ranks 30,338th 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 Van Zandt
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.
Van Zandt's strengths and weaknesses
Where Van Zandt ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 97% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 86% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 83% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 81% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 75% of towns
Where Van Zandt ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,516 a month, better than only 2% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 3% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 12% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 13% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Van Zandt
A household needs to earn about $110,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Van Zandt home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $86,667, 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 Van Zandt's effective rate of 0.69%, 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 Van Zandt
Van Zandt runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Van Zandt.
Who works in Van Zandt, and how
Work in Van Zandt centers on construction and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 80%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 10%
Life in Van Zandt
The coast is about 33 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Van Zandt, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Van Zandt, month by month
Van Zandt sees roughly 101 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 76 degrees. January highs sit near 48, with lows near 33. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 48° | 40° | 33° |
| April | 60° | 50° | 40° |
| July | 76° | 65° | 54° |
| October | 61° | 51° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Van Zandt
The nearest airport, Bellingham International, is about 16 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Seattle-Tacoma International, about 92 miles away.
Van Zandt 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 Van Zandt against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Van Zandt
Is Van Zandt a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Van Zandt ranks 30,338th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on clean air, low taxes, and population health, 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 Van Zandt expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $427,700. The overall cost of living runs about 20% above the national average. Set against a $86,667 median income, cost of living beats 28% of towns.
Is Van Zandt safe?
Van Zandt is safer than 18% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $597 per resident a year.
Compare Van Zandt with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Van Zandt. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Van Zandt 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.
Van Zandt detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Van Zandt: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Van Zandt: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Van Zandt: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Van Zandt: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Van Zandt 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.