Best PlacesVancouver, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Vancouver, 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.
Vancouver ranks 167th of 445 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It does not top any single list, but it lands above the national middle on clean air and cheap car insurance. The weaker spots are state infrastructure, transit, and childcare costs.
The best neighborhoods in Vancouver
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 Vancouver
The parts of Vancouver, 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.
Felida-Starcrest, Starcrest & Lincoln
Local pay stretches further, incomes run higher, and more residents vote.
Burnt Bridge Creek, North Image & Fisher's Village-Orchards Area
It is quieter and crime runs lower.
Landover-Sharmel, Burton Evergreen & Image
More households have young kids, though streets are more car-dependent.
Fishers Landing East, Fircrest & Bennington
Biking is better.
Pleasant Valley, Van Mall & West Minnehaha
Scores close to Fishers Landing East, Fircrest & Bennington, except that fewer adults hold degrees here.
Ellsworth Springs, Vancouver Heights & Marrion
Hough, Carter Park & Fruit Valley
Homes cost less, though disaster risk is higher.
Ogden, Bagley Downs & Hamey Heights
Health care is harder to reach and schools score lower.
Vancouver shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 8% of the country and others in the top 2%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Vancouver's strengths and weaknesses
Vancouver lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Clean air, cheap car insurance, and few empty homes carry most of that.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. State infrastructure, transit, and childcare costs 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 Vancouver ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 95% of cities
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 82% of cities
- Low vacancyBetter than 82% of cities
- Local economyBetter than 75% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 74% of cities
Where Vancouver ranks low
- State infrastructureBetter than only 5% of cities
- TransitBetter than only 20% of cities
- Cheap childcare$1,375 a month, better than only 22% of cities
- Internet speedBetter than only 26% of cities
- QuietBetter than only 31% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Vancouver
A household needs to earn about $131,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Vancouver home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $95,920, 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 Vancouver's effective rate of 0.80%, 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 Vancouver
Vancouver'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 Vancouver.
Who works in Vancouver, and how
Work in Vancouver centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 75%
- Work from home 19%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Vancouver
Vancouver has more restaurants and bars per resident than 97% of cities and more parkland per resident than 86% of cities. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Vancouver and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Vancouver, month by month
Vancouver sees roughly 114 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 49, with lows near 36. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 49° | 42° | 36° |
| April | 66° | 53° | 43° |
| July | 86° | 71° | 59° |
| October | 67° | 56° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Vancouver
Portland International sits about 4 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 9.1 million passengers in 2025, with 117 nonstop destinations.
Vancouver 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 Vancouver against the other 444 cities.
Who Vancouver suits
Families
Schools land around the 33rd percentile and crime safety beats 69%.
Common questions about living in Vancouver
Is Vancouver a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Vancouver ranks 167th of 445 cities. It scores highest on clean air, cheap car insurance, and few empty homes, and lowest on state infrastructure and transit. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Vancouver expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $503,231. The overall cost of living runs about 7% above the national average. Set against a $95,920 median income, cost of living beats 55% of cities.
Is Vancouver safe?
Yes, Vancouver is safer than 69% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $457 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Vancouver?
July highs average about 86 degrees, and January highs near 49 with lows near 36. That works out to about 114 pleasant days a year, more than 56% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Vancouver?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Felida-Starcrest, Starcrest & Lincoln, Burnt Bridge Creek, North Image & Fisher's Village-Orchards Area, and Landover-Sharmel, Burton Evergreen & Image. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Vancouver good for families?
Schools beat 33% of cities, crime safety beats 69%, and childcare runs $1,375 a month.
Is Vancouver good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 55% of cities, though advertised internet speeds beat only 26% of cities. About 19% of workers already work from home.
Compare Vancouver with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Vancouver. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Vancouver 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.
Vancouver detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Vancouver: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Vancouver: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Vancouver: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Vancouver: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Vancouver 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.