Everything else equal, we can all agree that living in a cheaper place is better than living in a more expensive place.
I’d much rather pay $500/mo in rent than $1,000. And I’d rather pay $2 for coffee than $5.
And while every neighborhood in Seattle might be more expensive than living in rural Washington, there are certain neighborhoods that are definitely cheaper.
What exactly are those Seattle neighborhoods where your dollar goes a little further — you can get that one bedroom instead of the studio?
Instead of relying on public opinion and speculation, we wanted to get the facts straight and determine which neighborhoods in Seattle are the cheapest using Saturday Night Science.
181 cost of living index
158 cost of living index
148 cost of living index
178 cost of living index
180 cost of living index
166 cost of living index
182 cost of living index
192 cost of living index
189 cost of living index
213 cost of living index
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is Washington’s statewide median.
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: How we determined the cheapest Seattle hoods in 2026
To rank the cheapest places to live in Seattle, we had to determine what criteria define “cheap” and then apply Saturday Night Science.
Using Census and extrapolated BLS data, we arrived at the following set of criteria:
- Overall Cost Of Living
- Rent To Income Ratio
- Median Home Value To Income Ratio
We then ranked each neighborhood with scores from 1 to 78 in each category, where 1 was the cheapest.
Next, we averaged the rankings for each neighborhood to create a cheap neighborhood index.
And finally, we crowned the neighborhood with the lowest cheapest neighborhood index, the “Cheapest City Neighborhood In Seattle.” We’re lookin’ at you, Admiral.
We updated this article for 2026. Skip to the end to see the list of all the neighborhoods in the city, from cheapest to most expensive.
The full plate
Detailed list of the cheapest neighborhoods to live in Seattle for 2026
Click any column to sort. Search by neighborhood name.
| Rank | Neighborhood | Cost Of Living Index |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Admiral | 181 |
| 2 | High Point | 158 |
| 3 | Rainier Beach | 148 |
| 4 | Arbor Heights | 178 |
| 5 | Westlake | 180 |
| 6 | Industrial District | 166 |
| 7 | Whittier Heights | 182 |
| 8 | View Ridge | 192 |
| 9 | Magnolia | 189 |
| 10 | Olympic Manor | 213 |
| 11 | South Lake Union | 168 |
| 11 | South Delridge | 147 |
| 13 | Victory Heights | 170 |
| 14 | Montlake | 226 |
| 15 | Seward Park | 185 |
| 16 | Mount Baker | 176 |
| 17 | Riverview | 157 |
| 18 | Alki | 186 |
| 19 | Crown Hill | 188 |
| 19 | Sunset Hill | 187 |
| 21 | Columbia City | 168 |
| 22 | North Delridge | 165 |
| 22 | Roxhill | 155 |
| 24 | Haller Lake | 156 |
| 25 | Highland Park | 151 |
| 26 | Greenwood | 170 |
| 27 | Meadowbrook | 173 |
| 28 | Matthews Beach | 192 |
| 29 | Blue Ridge | 190 |
| 30 | Hawthorne Hills | 213 |
| 31 | Sand Point | 154 |
| 32 | Wedgwood | 193 |
| 32 | West Seattle | 182 |
| 34 | Belltown | 184 |
| 35 | Broadview | 175 |
| 36 | Georgetown | 154 |
| 36 | Maple Leaf | 177 |
| 38 | Loyal Heights | 192 |
| 39 | Interbay | 186 |
| 40 | Ballard | 182 |
| 41 | Roosevelt | 195 |
| 42 | North Beach | 206 |
| 43 | Portage Bay | 229 |
| 44 | South Park | 140 |
| 45 | Bryant | 198 |
| 46 | Broadmoor | 264 |
| 47 | North College Park | 171 |
| 48 | Denny-Blaine | 246 |
| 49 | Phinney Ridge | 195 |
| 50 | Green Lake | 188 |
| 51 | Ravenna | 198 |
| 52 | Leschi | 211 |
| 52 | Olympic Hills | 157 |
| 54 | Laurelhurst | 276 |
| 55 | Wallingford | 196 |
| 56 | Fauntleroy | 189 |
| 57 | Capitol Hill | 181 |
| 58 | Beacon Hill | 161 |
| 58 | Northgate | 152 |
| 60 | Queen Anne | 204 |
| 61 | Downtown | 184 |
| 62 | Madrona | 215 |
| 63 | Brighton | 158 |
| 63 | Fremont | 187 |
| 65 | Pinehurst | 168 |
| 66 | Cedar Park | 174 |
| 66 | Lower Queen Anne | 174 |
| 68 | Bitter Lake | 157 |
| 69 | Central District | 177 |
| 70 | International District | 153 |
| 71 | Madison Park | 283 |
| 71 | Atlantic | 171 |
| 73 | First Hill | 171 |
| 73 | Eastlake | 200 |
| 75 | Pioneer Square | 172 |
| 76 | Madison Valley | 203 |
| 77 | Windermere | 280 |
| 78 | University District | 194 |
Source: U.S. Census ACS 2020-2024. All 78 Seattle neighborhoods.
Summary
Summary: Lowest cost places to live in Seattle
If you’re measuring the neighborhoods in Seattle where prices are low, and it’s cheap to live, this is an accurate list.
The most affordable neighborhoods in Seattle are Admiral, High Point, Rainier Beach, Arbor Heights, Westlake, Industrial District, Whittier Heights, View Ridge, Magnolia, and Olympic Manor.
As mentioned earlier, the neighborhoods in Seattle aren’t all cheap. University District takes the title of the most expensive neighborhood to live in Seattle.
We ranked the neighborhoods from cheapest to most expensive in the chart below. Not sold on Washington? Take the two-minute Find Your Place quiz and see which state actually fits you.
Questions and answers
Cheapest Neighborhoods In Seattle FAQs
What is the cheapest neighborhood in Seattle?
Admiral is the cheapest neighborhood in Seattle for 2026. It posts the best combination of overall cost of living, rent against income, and home prices against income. High Point and Rainier Beach are next.
What are the cheapest neighborhoods in Seattle?
The cheapest neighborhoods in Seattle are Admiral, High Point, Rainier Beach, Arbor Heights, Westlake, Industrial District, Whittier Heights, View Ridge, Magnolia, and Olympic Manor. We ranked all 78 neighborhoods in the city.
How do you decide which neighborhoods are cheapest?
Three measures: an overall cost of living index, rent-to-income, and home-value-to-income, all from Census tract data. Scoring costs against local incomes keeps one luxury tower from skewing the math.
Is a cheap neighborhood a bad neighborhood?
Not necessarily — this ranking measures what things cost relative to income, nothing else. Check our safest neighborhoods in Seattle ranking before you sign a lease, because cheap and safe are separate questions.
What is the most expensive neighborhood in Seattle?
University District lands at the expensive end of the 78 neighborhoods we scored. If your budget disagrees with it, the rest of the list runs cheaper.
