Best PlacesWillapa, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Willapa, 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.
Willapa ranks 29,392nd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and disaster risk is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Willapa
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.
Willapa's strengths and weaknesses
Where Willapa ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 95% of towns
- QuietBetter than 89% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 86% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 77% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 109 pleasant days a year, better than 74% of towns
Where Willapa ranks low
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 6% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,375 a month, better than only 7% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 13% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 18% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 20% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Willapa
A household needs to earn about $77,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Willapa home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $69,655; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Willapa's effective rate of 0.68%, 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 10 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Willapa
Willapa'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 Willapa.
Who works in Willapa, and how
Work in Willapa centers on health care & social and public administration. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 79%
- Work from home 19%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Willapa
The coast is about 13 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Willapa, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Willapa, month by month
Willapa sees roughly 109 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 70 degrees. January highs sit near 50, with lows near 38. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 50° | 43° | 38° |
| April | 58° | 49° | 41° |
| July | 70° | 61° | 54° |
| October | 62° | 53° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Willapa
Seattle-Tacoma International sits about 85 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 25.4 million passengers in 2025, with 172 nonstop destinations.
Willapa 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 Willapa against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Willapa
Is Willapa a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Willapa ranks 29,392nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on clean air, quiet, and low taxes, and lowest on disaster risk and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Willapa expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $300,258. The overall cost of living runs about 9% below the national average. Set against a $69,655 median income, cost of living beats 38% of towns.
Is Willapa safe?
Willapa is safer than 40% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $495 per resident a year.
Compare Willapa with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Willapa. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Willapa 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.
Willapa detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Willapa: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Willapa: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Willapa: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Willapa: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Willapa 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.