Best PlacesYakima County, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in Yakima County, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Yakima County ranks 668th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on thin health care access and education levels. It does better on cell coverage, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in Yakima County
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 Yakima County
The parts of Yakima County, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the county.
Yakima
More adults hold degrees, local pay stretches further, and incomes run higher.
Tieton & Naches
More residents vote and health care is easier to reach.
Moxee & Zillah
More households have young kids, though biking is worse.
Selah & Terrace Heights
It is noisier and crime runs higher.
Wapato & Union Gap
Streets are more walkable and homes cost less.
Sunnyside, Grandview & Toppenish
Schools score lower and transit reaches fewer jobs.
Scores across Yakima County run from about the 17th to the 98th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Yakima County's strengths and weaknesses
Yakima County ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Cell coverage, few empty homes, and the weather carry most of that.
The one real hole is thin health care access, near the bottom of the country. Education levels and civic engagement also cost it ground. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Yakima County ranks high
- Cell coverageBetter than 96% of counties
- Low vacancyBetter than 94% of counties
- Nice weatherabout 157 pleasant days a year, better than 94% of counties
- WalkabilityBetter than 93% of counties
- TransitBetter than 92% of counties
Where Yakima County ranks low
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 3% of counties
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 4% of counties
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 8% of counties
- Cheap childcare$1,102 a month, better than only 11% of counties
- State infrastructureBetter than only 11% of counties
What it costs to buy a home in Yakima County
A household needs to earn about $79,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Yakima County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $73,424; 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 Yakima County's effective rate of 0.77%, 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 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Yakima County
Yakima County runs younger than the country, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Yakima County.
Who works in Yakima County, and how
Work in Yakima County centers on agriculture & forestry and health care & social. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 89%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Yakima County
Yakima County has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most counties and less parkland per resident than most counties. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Yakima County and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Yakima County growing, and who is moving in?
Yakima County has grown about 5% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Seattle, WA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Yakima County go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Yakima County, month by month
Yakima County sees roughly 157 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 94 degrees. January highs sit near 41, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, August, and September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 41° | 32° | 23° |
| April | 67° | 52° | 35° |
| July | 94° | 77° | 55° |
| October | 67° | 50° | 35° |
Flying in and out of Yakima County
The nearest airport, Yakima Air Trml/McAllister Field, is about 7 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Seattle-Tacoma International, about 110 miles away.
The best schools in and around Yakima County
Schools across Yakima County average a C, better than 52% of counties.
Top high schools
- Yakama Nation Tribal SchoolF · 10% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Yakima County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Yakima County 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 Yakima County against the other 3,143 counties.
Who Yakima County suits
Families
Schools land around the 52nd percentile and crime safety beats 92%.
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 8% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Yakima County
Is Yakima County a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Yakima County ranks 668th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on cell coverage, few empty homes, and the weather, and lowest on thin health care access and education levels. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Yakima County expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $302,690. The overall cost of living runs about 6% below the national average. Set against a $73,424 median income, cost of living beats 38% of counties.
Is Yakima County safe?
Yes, Yakima County is safer than 92% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $341 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Yakima County?
July highs average about 94 degrees, and January highs near 41 with lows near 23. That works out to about 157 pleasant days a year, more than 94% of counties.
What are the best neighborhoods in Yakima County?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Yakima, Tieton & Naches, and Moxee & Zillah. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Yakima County good for families?
Schools beat 52% of counties, crime safety beats 92%, and childcare runs $1,102 a month.
Is Yakima County good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 38% of counties, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 77% of counties. About 8% of workers already work from home.
Compare Yakima County with other counties
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Yakima County. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Yakima County 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.
Yakima County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Yakima County: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Yakima County: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Yakima County: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Yakima County: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Yakima County 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.