Best PlacesWelches, OR Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Welches, 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.
Welches ranks 20,102nd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on civic engagement by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Welches
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.
Welches' strengths and weaknesses
Where Welches ranks high
- Voter turnoutBetter than 98% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 97% of towns
- BikingBetter than 97% of towns
- TransitBetter than 94% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 90% of towns
Where Welches ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,525 a month, better than only 2% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 8% of towns
- Short commute34.5 minutes each way, better than only 15% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 18% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 24% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Welches
A household needs to earn about $97,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Welches home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $78,738, 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 Welches' effective rate of 0.76%, 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 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Welches
Welches 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 Welches.
Who works in Welches, and how
Work in Welches centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 68%
- Work from home 19%
- Transit, walk, or bike 13%
Life in Welches
Welches has more restaurants and bars per resident than 91% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Welches and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Welches, month by month
Welches sees roughly 93 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 48, with lows near 37. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 48° | 42° | 37° |
| April | 65° | 53° | 42° |
| July | 87° | 71° | 57° |
| October | 67° | 56° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Welches
Portland International sits about 35 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 9.1 million passengers in 2025, with 117 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Welches
Schools across Welches average a B, better than 65% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Clackamas River Elementary SchoolC− · 27% proficient
Top middle schools
- Estacada Middle SchoolD− · 18% proficient
Top high schools
- Estacada High SchoolB− · 41% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Welches school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Welches 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 Welches against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Welches
Is Welches a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Welches ranks 20,102nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on civic engagement, state infrastructure, and biking, and lowest on childcare costs and an overheated housing market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Welches expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $373,056. The overall cost of living runs about 14% above the national average. Set against a $78,738 median income, cost of living beats 31% of towns.
Is Welches safe?
Yes, Welches is safer than 56% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $370 per resident a year.
Compare Welches with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Welches. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Welches 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.
Welches detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Welches: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Welches: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Welches: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Welches: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Welches 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.