The 10 Cheapest Places To Live In Washington In 2026

The 10 Cheapest Places To Live In Washington For 2026

Clarkston ranks as Washington’s most affordable city with a cost of living index of 96. Located in the Lewiston-ID-WA metro area, the city has a median home value of $339,607 and a $917 median rent.

Clarkston offers a variety of activities, such as fishing at Lower Granite Dam, hiking in Hells Gate State Park, visiting the Asotin County Aquatic Center, playing golf at Quail Ridge Golf Course, visiting the Nez Perce National Historical Park, and more.

More on Clarkston: Data | Cost Of Living | Movers

Located 20 miles southeast of Yakima, Toppenish is the second cheapest place to live in Washington. At a median price tag of $274,116, Toppenish boasts some of the cheapest homes in the state. And with residents earning a median income of $67,854, you’ll have the mortgage paid off before you even finish unpacking. As a bonus, you can see loads of spectacular art in Toppenish without spending a dime, because the city has over 75 murals to see. Trying to spot them all would be an inexpensive way to spend the day in Washington’s second most affordable city.

More on Toppenish: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Movers

More on Omak: Movers

Located an hour west of Olympia, Hoquiam ranks as the fourth most affordable city in Washington. Not to mention it’s the only city on this list that boasts ocean views and beaches. You’d have no idea you’re living in one of the most expensive states in the country if you moved to Hoquiam, where the median home price is the lowest in Washington at $242,339. With folks in Hoquiam pulling in a median income of $49,795, Hoquiam has the 11th best home price to income ratio in the state. The only thing keeping Hoquiam from a higher spot on this list is a not-so-impressive income to rent ratio.

More on Hoquiam: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Movers

Located between Yakima and Kennewick, Grandview is the fifth cheapest city in Washington. With a combination of both a middle-of-the-pack median home price and median income at $339,263 and $61,106 respectively, Grandview has the 32nd lowest home price to income ratio in the state. You can save even more money by buying your produce at Bill’s Berry Farm instead of the grocery store.

More on Grandview: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Movers

Aberdeen used to be a rough town. Around the turn of the 20th century, it had earned the nickname “Port of Missing Men” because of the tendency of sailors to get murdered there. These days, the community’s reputation has changed somewhat. Now it’s known as one of the most affordable places to live in Washington.

Crime is still an issue in the area. The crime rate runs about 80% above the national average. There are other benefits for the 17,088 residents, however. Namely, Aberdeen has an extremely reasonable housing market.

The median home price sits at $273,201. That equates to the fourth cheapest level in the state. You can get a good deal on rents as well. The median value there stands at $1,049 per month. Overall, the cost of living in Aberdeen comes in at 90% the national average, thanks largely to affordable housing.

Aberdeen is built on Grays Harbor on the Pacific Coast. Seattle, the state’s biggest city, is a two-hour drive to the northeast. Just north of Aberdeen, you can find the Olympic National Forest, a great place for hiking and other outdoor activities.

More on Aberdeen: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Movers

Review Of Aberdeen by HomeSnacks User

I agree with your ranking of Aberdeen, I’ve lived in Aberdeen for about 66 years. Since high school in the 60s we’ve lost about 5,000 people and the economy is worse. Many homeless people are piling up their junk in front of businesses, the new mayor has raised taxes and now wants to accommodate these often dangerous people. It will only bring more bums into our area. The alleys are full of litter and drunks.

The cost of services are going up and up, and there is nothing to do for entertainment. I’ve waited all my life for it to get better here but this place is 1 step forward and 3 steps back.

Located in central Washington, Quincy is the seventh cheapest place to live in the state. “Opportunities Unlimited” is the city’s motto, and boy is that true in monetary terms.

The median income in Quincy is $87,902 and the median home price is $424,716, giving the city the ninth lowest ratio of home price to income in Washington. And while rent in Quincy is slightly higher than #1 Connell, renters pay the 11th lowest proportion of their income for rent in Washington. Couple these low bills with free activities like hiking around Ancient Lakes, and your savings will grow faster than you know what to do with them.

More on Quincy: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Movers

Union Gap, located in WA, is one of Washington’s most affordable places to live. With a median home value of $253,404 and a median rent of $1,133, residents can enjoy a high quality of life without breaking the bank. In fact, the home price to income ratio is only 4.25, making it one of the most affordable cities in the state.

As the retail hub for the Yakima Valley, Union Gap has access to a variety of shopping and dining options. Additionally, the city is home to part of the Yakama Nation, adding cultural significance to the area.

More on Union Gap: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Movers

Sunnyside has one of the most upbeat names for a town. Located in the south-central part of the state, the community sits along I-82, near the Yakama Indian Reservation. And there is some reason for the 16,277 inhabitants of Sunnyside to be so sunny: they live in the number 9 cheapest location in all of Washington.

The overall cost of living in Sunnyside ranks at 90% of the U.S. norm. While you can get a good deal on utilities in the region, the main living-expense value comes from cheap housing. The median home price sits at $322,237, the sixth lowest mark in Washington.

Rents present a great value as well. The median level there stands at $1,026 per month. That’s the seventh best reading in the state.

Elsewhere in the economy, the median income comes in at $60,923 while the unemployment rate sits at 12.31%. Crime is a modest problem in the area. The crime rate hovers about 35% above the U.S. standard.

In terms of local excitement, the Hanford Reach National Monument lies just north of town. Or you can jump on I-82 and get to Seattle in around 3 hours.

More on Sunnyside: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Movers

Washington may be one of the most expensive states in America, but you wouldn’t know it in Ephrata, the tenth most affordable city in the state. Ephrata is a great place to buy or rent, with both options costing less of your hard-earned income than most cities in Washington. The median income in Ephrata is $69,551 and the median home price is $323,666. At just a hair over $700/month, Ephrata’s median rent is slightly higher than the cities above, but still substantially lower than Washington in general.

Ephrata is located in central Washington, just east of Quincy.

More on Ephrata: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Movers

Cheapest places to live in Washington FAQs

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The county in Washington with the lowest cost of living is Snohomish County. The average living wage in Snohomish County is $103,576 according to MIT data. Snohomish County has the lowest cost of living because it has relatively less expensive childcare and housing costs compared to Washington as a whole. Childcare costs $21,546 a year in Snohomish County for two children compared to the Washington average of $19,075. Housing costs, defined as a blend of the average rent and average mortgage payment, are $22,872 per year in Snohomish County compared to $17,877 on average in Washington.

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The cost of living in Washington is 5.9% higher than the US average. According to MIT, the required living wage for a family of four with two working parents in Washington is $95,068 vs the national average for a family of four with two working parents of $89,744. The median income of a Washington household is $77,006.

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The cheapest housing market in Washington is Wapato. The average home value in Wapato is $109,400, the lowest in the state. The average home value in Washington is $366,800, almost 3.4 times higher than Wapato.

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Methodology: How we determined the most affordable places to live in the Evergreen State for 2026

Determining affordability for places in Washington boils down to how much it costs to live here.

You need to understand your costs relative to what people in the rest of the state are paying.

With that logic in mind, we derived several cost of living statistics from the latest Census American Community Survey 2020-2024 for Washington using Saturday Night Science. We indexed the cost of living statistics across the following categories:

• Housing
• Transportation
• Services
• Groceries
• Healthcare
• Utilities

These are then weighted together to produce an overall cost of living index where 100 is the United States average. Anything below 100 is relatively affordable. Anything over 100 is relatively expensive.

We applied the biggest weight to housing as it typically accounts for 25% or more of your budget. Additionally, housing costs are the highest variant cost across a state. We then compare these cost of living metrics for each place in Washington to figure out which is the least expensive.

The “Cost of Living Index” allows you to rank all of the 122 places in Washington that have more than 5,000 people from least expensive to most expensive. Any ties went to the larger city.

The place in Washington with the lowest cost of living according to the data is Clarkston.

We updated this article for 2026. This report reflects our eleventh time ranking the cheapest places to live in Washington.