Best PlacesYamhill County, OR Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in Yamhill County, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Distance to the water drives a lot of the difference between one part and the next. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Yamhill County ranks 478th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 60 minutes away. Its strengths are state infrastructure and few empty homes. The cost shows up in childcare costs, disaster risk, and thin health care access.
The best neighborhoods in Yamhill 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 Yamhill County
The parts of Yamhill 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.
Yamhill & Carlton
It is quieter, incomes run higher, and local pay stretches further.
Newberg
Biking is better and more adults hold degrees.
Dundee & Dayton
More households have young kids and more residents vote.
Mcminnville & Lafayette
Streets are more walkable, though crime runs higher.
Amity
Health care is harder to reach.
Sheridan
Prices have run up less and fewer homes sit empty.
Yamhill County shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 12% of the country and others in the top 3%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Yamhill County's strengths and weaknesses
Yamhill County ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. State infrastructure, few empty homes, and biking carry most of that.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Childcare costs, disaster risk, and thin health care access hold the score down. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Yamhill County ranks high
- State infrastructureBetter than 97% of counties
- Low vacancyBetter than 94% of counties
- BikingBetter than 93% of counties
- Internet speedBetter than 92% of counties
- WalkabilityBetter than 91% of counties
Where Yamhill County ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,249 a month, better than only 8% of counties
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 20% of counties
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 28% of counties
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 28% of counties
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 31% of counties
What it costs to buy a home in Yamhill County
A household needs to earn about $130,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Yamhill County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $94,295, 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 Yamhill County's effective rate of 0.70%, 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 Yamhill County
Yamhill County'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 Yamhill County.
Who works in Yamhill County, and how
Work in Yamhill County centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 77%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 9%
Life in Yamhill County
Yamhill County has more restaurants and bars per resident than 83% of counties. The coast is about 60 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Yamhill County and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Yamhill County growing, and who is moving in?
Yamhill County has grown about 10% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from the rest of the Portland, OR metro.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Yamhill County go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Yamhill County, month by month
Yamhill County sees roughly 98 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 50, with lows near 35. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 50° | 42° | 35° |
| April | 64° | 51° | 39° |
| July | 87° | 69° | 52° |
| October | 67° | 54° | 42° |
Flying in and out of Yamhill County
The nearest airport, McNary Field, is about 24 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Portland International, about 36 miles away.
The best schools in and around Yamhill County
Schools across Yamhill County average a B−, better than 62% of counties.
Top elementary schools
- Ewing Young Elementary SchoolB · 50% proficient
- Antonia Crater Elementary SchoolB− · 40% proficient
- Mabel Rush Elementary SchoolC+ · 37% proficient
Top middle schools
- Mountain View Middle SchoolC · 34% proficient
- Chehalem Valley Middle SchoolC · 31% proficient
- Yamhill Carlton Intermediate SchoolC− · 28% proficient
Top high schools
- Yamhill Carlton High SchoolA− · 60% proficient
- Newberg Senior High SchoolB+ · 55% proficient
- Gaston Jr/sr High SchoolC · 33% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Yamhill County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Yamhill 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 Yamhill County against the other 3,143 counties.
Who Yamhill County suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 14% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Yamhill County
Is Yamhill County a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Yamhill County ranks 478th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on state infrastructure, few empty homes, and biking, and lowest on childcare costs and disaster risk. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Yamhill County expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $503,827. The overall cost of living runs about 8% above the national average. Set against a $94,295 median income, cost of living beats 64% of counties.
Is Yamhill County safe?
Yes, Yamhill County is safer than 87% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $319 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Yamhill County?
July highs average about 87 degrees, and January highs near 50 with lows near 35. That works out to about 98 pleasant days a year, more than 59% of counties.
What are the best neighborhoods in Yamhill County?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Yamhill & Carlton, Newberg, and Dundee & Dayton. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Yamhill County good for families?
Schools beat 62% of counties, crime safety beats 87%, and childcare runs $1,249 a month.
Is Yamhill County good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 64% of counties, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 92% of counties. About 14% of workers already work from home.
Compare Yamhill County with other counties
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Yamhill County. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Yamhill 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.
Yamhill County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Yamhill County: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Yamhill County: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Yamhill County: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Yamhill County: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Yamhill 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.