Best PlacesWenatchee, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Wenatchee metro, 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.
Photo by Jennifer Gottwald, CC BY 2.0, via wiki
Wenatchee ranks 73rd of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It does not top any single list, but it lands above the national middle on clean air and the weather. The weaker spots are internet speeds, state infrastructure, and thin health care access.
The best neighborhoods in the Wenatchee metro
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 Wenatchee
The towns and districts of the Wenatchee metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Cashmere, Leavenworth & Sunnyslope
More adults hold degrees, tree cover is thicker, and incomes run higher.
East Wenatchee & Wenatchee
Fewer homes sit empty and more households have young kids.
Manson
It is quieter, though prices have run up more.
Chelan & Bridgeport
Local pay stretches less far and biking is worse.
Wenatchee shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 12% of the country and others in the top 2%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Wenatchee's strengths and weaknesses
Wenatchee ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Clean air is the standout, in the top 3% of metro areas. The weather and quiet follow.
The one real hole is internet speeds, near the bottom of the country. State infrastructure and thin health care access also cost it ground. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Wenatchee ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 97% of metro areas
- Nice weatherabout 174 pleasant days a year, better than 94% of metro areas
- QuietBetter than 90% of metro areas
- TransitBetter than 84% of metro areas
- Short commute20.2 minutes each way, better than 83% of metro areas
Where Wenatchee ranks low
- Internet speedBetter than only 4% of metro areas
- State infrastructureBetter than only 10% of metro areas
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 12% of metro areas
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 16% of metro areas
- Low vacancyBetter than only 25% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Wenatchee
A household needs to earn about $125,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Wenatchee home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $88,145, 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 Wenatchee's effective rate of 0.71%, 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 Wenatchee
Wenatchee'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 Wenatchee.
Who works in Wenatchee, and how
Work in Wenatchee 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 82%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 8%
Life in Wenatchee
Wenatchee has more restaurants and bars per resident than 70% of metro areas and more late-night spots per resident than 78% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Wenatchee and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Wenatchee growing, and who is moving in?
Wenatchee has grown about 12% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Seattle, WA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Wenatchee go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Wenatchee, month by month
Wenatchee sees roughly 174 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 35, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, August, and September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 35° | 29° | 23° |
| April | 64° | 51° | 39° |
| July | 92° | 77° | 62° |
| October | 63° | 51° | 40° |
Flying in and out of Wenatchee
The nearest airport, Pangborn Memorial, is about 6 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Seattle-Tacoma International, about 93 miles away.
Wenatchee 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 Wenatchee against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Wenatchee suits
Families
Schools land around the 28th percentile and crime safety beats 83%.
Retirees
The weather beats 94% of metro areas and it is quieter than 90%.
Common questions about living in Wenatchee
Is Wenatchee a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Wenatchee ranks 73rd of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on clean air, the weather, and quiet, and lowest on internet speeds and state infrastructure. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Wenatchee expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $482,383. The overall cost of living runs about 1% above the national average. Set against a $88,145 median income, cost of living beats 46% of metro areas.
Is Wenatchee safe?
Yes, Wenatchee is safer than 83% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $357 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Wenatchee?
July highs average about 92 degrees, and January highs near 35 with lows near 23. That works out to about 174 pleasant days a year, more than 94% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Wenatchee?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Cashmere, Leavenworth & Sunnyslope, East Wenatchee & Wenatchee, and Manson. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Wenatchee good for families?
Schools beat 28% of metro areas, crime safety beats 83%, and childcare runs $1,077 a month.
Is Wenatchee good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 46% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 4% of metro areas. About 10% of workers already work from home.
Compare Wenatchee with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Wenatchee. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Wenatchee 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.
Wenatchee detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Wenatchee: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Wenatchee: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Wenatchee: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Wenatchee: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Wenatchee 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.