Best PlacesWauna, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Wauna, 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.
Wauna ranks 27,098th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Wauna
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.
Wauna's strengths and weaknesses
Where Wauna ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 95% of towns
- QuietBetter than 93% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 90% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 87% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 86% of towns
Where Wauna ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Short commute41.1 minutes each way, better than only 4% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,374 a month, better than only 7% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 8% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Wauna
A household needs to earn about $142,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Wauna home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $75,886, 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 Wauna's effective rate of 0.74%, 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 Wauna
Wauna 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 Wauna.
Who works in Wauna, and how
Work in Wauna centers on finance & insurance and public administration. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 61%
- Work from home 37%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Wauna
The coast is about 55 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Wauna, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Wauna, month by month
Wauna sees roughly 93 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 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 | 62° | 48° | 36° |
| July | 82° | 65° | 51° |
| October | 63° | 51° | 40° |
Flying in and out of Wauna
Seattle-Tacoma International sits about 31 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 25.4 million passengers in 2025, with 172 nonstop destinations.
Wauna 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 Wauna against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Wauna
Is Wauna a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Wauna ranks 27,098th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on clean air, quiet, and an educated workforce, and lowest on an overheated housing market and long commutes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Wauna expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $547,930. The overall cost of living runs about 2% below the national average. Set against a $75,886 median income, cost of living beats 58% of towns.
Is Wauna safe?
Yes, Wauna is safer than 69% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $328 per resident a year.
Compare Wauna with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Wauna. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Wauna 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.
Wauna detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Wauna: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Wauna: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Wauna: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Wauna: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Wauna 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.