Best PlacesWest Minnehaha, Vancouver, WA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around West Minnehaha, Vancouver, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

West Minnehaha, Vancouver ranks 3,119th of 5,983 U.S. neighborhoods on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and state infrastructure ranks lowest.

#3,119
of 5,983 neighborhoods
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 5,983 neighborhoods
Your rank
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The best neighborhoods in West Minnehaha, Vancouver

Map of the best neighborhoods in the West Minnehaha, Vancouver area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
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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.

West Minnehaha, Vancouver's strengths and weaknesses

Top 10%Clean air
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare West Minnehaha, Vancouver with other neighborhoods.

Where West Minnehaha, Vancouver ranks high

  • Air qualityBetter than 93% of neighborhoods
  • Low vacancyBetter than 86% of neighborhoods
  • Internet speedBetter than 85% of neighborhoods
  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than 83% of neighborhoods
  • Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 79% of neighborhoods

Where West Minnehaha, Vancouver ranks low

  • State infrastructureBetter than only 7% of neighborhoods
  • TransitBetter than only 13% of neighborhoods
  • QuietBetter than only 18% of neighborhoods
  • WalkabilityBetter than only 18% of neighborhoods
  • Local economyBetter than only 22% of neighborhoods

What it costs to buy a home in West Minnehaha, Vancouver

A household needs to earn about $117,000 a year to comfortably buy the median West Minnehaha, Vancouver home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $89,154, so buying stretches a typical household.

Income to buy the median home
$117,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$2,728
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $450,114 home
Median rent
$1,980
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$2,295
Property tax$283
Homeowners insurance$150

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 West Minnehaha, Vancouver's 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 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in West Minnehaha, Vancouver

West Minnehaha, Vancouver's age mix sits close to the national median.

Median age
40
about the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
16%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.6
near the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1819%
18 to 3425%
35 to 4921%
50 to 6418%
65 and older16%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for West Minnehaha, Vancouver.


Who works in West Minnehaha, Vancouver, and how

Work in West Minnehaha, Vancouver centers on health care & social and transportation & warehousing. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.

Work from home
19%
above the national average
Unemployment
7.9%
above the national average
Job growth
+0.3%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social17%
Transportation & warehousing10%
Construction10%
Retail trade9%
Education8%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 73%
  • Work from home 19%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 8%

Life in West Minnehaha, Vancouver

West Minnehaha, Vancouver has more parkland per resident than 83% of neighborhoods. That concentrates in some parts of West Minnehaha, Vancouver and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Parkland
56 acres
about 8.2 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 83% of neighborhoods

What the weather is like in West Minnehaha, Vancouver, month by month

West Minnehaha, Vancouver sees roughly 114 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 49, with lows near 34. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January49°41°34°
April65°53°41°
July85°70°57°
October67°55°44°

Flying in and out of West Minnehaha, Vancouver

Portland International sits about 6 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 9.1 million passengers in 2025, with 117 nonstop destinations.

Nearest airport
PDX
Portland International, about 6 miles
Airport size
Medium hub
32nd-busiest in the US, 117 nonstop destinations
Average drive
8 min
from the area, with no traffic

West Minnehaha, 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 West Minnehaha, Vancouver against the other 5,982 neighborhoods.


Common questions about living in West Minnehaha, Vancouver

Is West Minnehaha, Vancouver a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, West Minnehaha, Vancouver ranks 3,119th of 5,983 neighborhoods. It scores highest on clean air, few empty homes, and fast internet, 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 West Minnehaha, Vancouver expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $450,114. The overall cost of living runs about 5% above the national average. Set against a $89,154 median income, cost of living beats 57% of neighborhoods.

Is West Minnehaha, Vancouver safe?

Yes, West Minnehaha, Vancouver is safer than 68% of neighborhoods. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $483 per resident a year.


Compare West Minnehaha, Vancouver with other neighborhoods


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to West Minnehaha, Vancouver. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in West Minnehaha, 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.

West Minnehaha, Vancouver detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for West Minnehaha, Vancouver: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in West Minnehaha, Vancouver: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of West Minnehaha, Vancouver: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in West Minnehaha, Vancouver: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

West Minnehaha, Vancouver detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.