The 10 Worst Seattle Suburbs

The 10 Worst Seattle Suburbs To Live For 2025

We’ll get the ball rolling with Tukwila, the absolute worst place to live around Seattle according to the data.

And in the world of worst rankings, Tukwila beat the competition pretty handily thanks to scoring in the bottom 15% in three major categories. Income is the 4th worst in the Seattle area, and to make matters worse, the city ranks 8th worst when it comes to home values.

But hey, at least it’s cheap to live there. But there’s a reason for that… it’s Tukwila.

You won’t feel bad about not having a great income for the area. There aren’t a bunch of places to spend your money anyway.

Welcome to Algona. Home to KMart, Big Lots, and a lot of gas stations.

This city is 23.8 miles to Seattle. Income levels here are the 9th lowest in the metro area, where families bring in about $84,583 a year, which only goes so far even on a shoestring budget.

But on the bright side, there are a lot of fast food joints in the area.

Back up the highway we go for the third worst Seattle suburb you can live in. You might have expected to see SeaTac on here. While the cost of living is low, your entertainment and work options are limited. And that’s an understatement.

In terms of numbers, it’s in the worst 15% for insurance, and the adult high school dropout rate is poor compared to other Seattle suburbs.

But at least there are lovely parks to bring the kids during the day.

If you live in Bremerton, most likely you struggle to make ends meet every month. It ranks as the lowest Seattle suburb for median household incomes.

Not only that, but this is the 17th worst unemployed suburb you can live in if you choose to live near Seattle. Remember, we looked at 54 cities for this study.

Bremerton is about 17.9 miles to downtown.

Fife has the distinction of being a Seattle suburb. Which means that’s about all it has going for it.

All snarkiness aside, Fife has the 6th lowest home values in the metro Seattle area, where the median price is $551,756. The median income is $250,001.

Fife has an unemployment rate of 5.38% which ranks 13th worst.

Port Orchard has 16,398 residents that probably know it’s a pretty crummy place to live when you look at the data. (Or, if you’ve ever been there, you don’t need to look at the data.)

Incomes are towards the bottom, and the poverty rate sits at 13.753490733688754%.

Ah, Milton. You rank as the 7th worst place to live around Seattle.

It’s the place with the 10th most out of work residents in the Seattle metro area (5.76%).

Everett is a city about 24.4 miles from Seattle, but Seattle probably wishes it was further away. It ranks as the 8th worst burb for 2018.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a worse place to live. Everett has the 10th most uninsured people, 6th worst incomes, and has the 12th highest unemployment rate (5.4%) in the entire Seattle metro area.

Homes only cost $648,395 for a reason. That’s cheap for Seattle standards.

If you absolutely have to live near Seattle, then Sumner might be a place for you to consider as it’s only the 9th worst Seattle suburb.

About 5.91% of residents are out of work.

Rounding out the ten worst Seattle suburbs to call home is Kent.

Located 17.3 miles outside the city, Kents is a real pit when you look at the data. Its residents have the 4th highest unemployment rate (7.32%), and poverty is far above the area average.