Best PlacesWhite Salmon, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around White Salmon, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
White Salmon ranks 8,832nd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in White Salmon
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.
White Salmon's strengths and weaknesses
Where White Salmon ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 94% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 93% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 92% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 92% of towns
- TransitBetter than 92% of towns
Where White Salmon ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,375 a month, better than only 7% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 13% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 14% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 22% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 28% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in White Salmon
A household needs to earn about $168,000 a year to comfortably buy the median White Salmon home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $95,587, 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 White Salmon's effective rate of 0.63%, 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 White Salmon
White Salmon 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 White Salmon.
Who works in White Salmon, and how
Work in White Salmon centers on manufacturing and professional & technical. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 63%
- Work from home 25%
- Transit, walk, or bike 12%
Life in White Salmon
White Salmon has more restaurants and bars per resident than 96% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of White Salmon and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in White Salmon, month by month
White Salmon sees roughly 130 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 93 degrees. January highs sit near 44, with lows near 30. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 44° | 36° | 30° |
| April | 68° | 54° | 40° |
| July | 93° | 77° | 61° |
| October | 69° | 54° | 42° |
Flying in and out of White Salmon
Portland International sits about 55 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 9.1 million passengers in 2025, with 117 nonstop destinations.
White Salmon 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 White Salmon against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in White Salmon
Is White Salmon a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, White Salmon ranks 8,832nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on clean air, population health, and an educated workforce, and lowest on childcare costs and state infrastructure. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is White Salmon expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $658,287. The overall cost of living runs about 5% above the national average. Set against a $95,587 median income, cost of living beats 70% of towns.
Is White Salmon safe?
White Salmon is safer than 37% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $461 per resident a year.
Compare White Salmon with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to White Salmon. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in White Salmon 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.
White Salmon detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for White Salmon: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in White Salmon: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of White Salmon: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in White Salmon: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
White Salmon 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.