Best PlacesYakima, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Yakima metro, 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.
Photo by Quintin Soloviev, CC BY 4.0, via commons
Yakima ranks 144th of 387 U.S. metro areas 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 the Yakima 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 Yakima
The towns and districts of the Yakima 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.
Downtown 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 run from about the 17th to the 98th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Yakima's strengths and weaknesses
Yakima lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. 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 state infrastructure also cost it ground. The detail is below, and the map is where it turns into a choice of neighborhood rather than just a place.
Where Yakima ranks high
- Cell coverageBetter than 92% of metro areas
- Low vacancyBetter than 92% of metro areas
- Nice weatherabout 157 pleasant days a year, better than 89% of metro areas
- Crime safetyBetter than 86% of metro areas
- WalkabilityBetter than 86% of metro areas
Where Yakima ranks low
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 2% of metro areas
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 3% of metro areas
- State infrastructureBetter than only 10% of metro areas
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 10% of metro areas
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 12% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Yakima
A household needs to earn about $79,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Yakima 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'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
Yakima 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.
Who works in Yakima, and how
Work in Yakima 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
Yakima has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas and less parkland per resident than most metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Yakima and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Yakima growing, and who is moving in?
Yakima 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 go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Yakima, month by month
Yakima 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
The nearest airport, Yakima Air Trml/McAllister Field, is about 2 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Seattle-Tacoma International, about 102 miles away.
Yakima 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 against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Yakima suits
Families
Schools land around the 44th percentile and crime safety beats 86%.
Retirees
The weather beats 89% of metro areas and it is quieter than 70%.
Common questions about living in Yakima
Is Yakima a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Yakima ranks 144th of 387 metro areas. 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 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 12% of metro areas.
Is Yakima safe?
Yes, Yakima is safer than 86% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $341 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Yakima?
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 89% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Yakima?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Downtown 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 good for families?
Schools beat 44% of metro areas, crime safety beats 86%, and childcare runs $1,102 a month.
Is Yakima good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 12% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 49% of metro areas. About 8% of workers already work from home.
Compare Yakima with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Yakima. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Yakima 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 detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Yakima: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Yakima: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Yakima: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Yakima: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Yakima 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.