The 10 Most Dangerous And Worst Neighborhoods In Seattle, WA

The 10 Most Dangerous Neighborhoods In Seattle For 2024

No, this isn’t the home of foul-mouthed cartoon characters. That South Park is in Colorado. You’ll find this South Park in the southern part of Seattle, across the Duwamish Waterway from the city’s airport.

Located near a busy aviation hub and an industrialized estuary, South Park doesn’t seem to present many park-like elements. Still, it doesn’t have a smattering of green space and some pleasant areas by the water.

Cosmetic aspects aside, residents wrestle with weighty financial concerns. The median income only reaches $56,829 – not exactly yacht money. In addition, the unemployment rate touches 6.3%.

In a medieval castle, or on a Game of Thrones set, you might expect a drawbridge and some archer towers. As in, “Look out! The wildlings are attacking the North Gate!” Here, the neighborhood just marks the northern stretch of Seattle.

With I-5 running through the center of the area, Northgate comes with its share of diversions. You’ve got amenities like the Jackson Park Golf Course. However, you also face an issue we’ve encountered elsewhere on this list: high real estate prices. In this case, a home will run you a median cost of $481,040. Compare that to the local median income of $65,554.

Sand Point is less of neighborhood and more of a giant park. It sits along the Sand Point peninsula in the northeastern part of the city, overlooking Lake Washington. It mostly consists of Magnuson Park, though there are a few residential areas as well.

You really couldn’t ask for a prettier spot to live. Of course, that kind of view comes at a cost. The median home value in this section amounts to $515,100. Also, while they’re close to the water and all the park attractions, residents live far from the heart of the city. This means they have to venture out for many amusements and necessities.

Welcome to Georgetown, home of the King County International Airport/Boeing Field. It’s already a theme on this list and a trend common to most cities: you don’t want to live near the airport. Unless you were one of those kids you just loved watching planes take off and land, you’re better off searching out a more inviting part of the city.

That said, the Seattle airport has some special features. Specifically, it serves as the base for airplane maker Boeing, which uses it for test flights.

All this activity helps support a robust economy, with a median income of $76,727 and an unemployment rate of 2.5%. Unfortunately, it’s hard to find amenities nearby and the median home price runs high at $491,060.

Don’t let the name fool you. North Delridge is located in the southern part of the city, near Harbor Island and a series of industrial districts. That said, the area itself is quite green. It has a host of park space, including Puget Park.

As we’ve seen elsewhere on this list, the cost of living undermines an otherwise beautiful neighborhood. Sure, the median income around here equals $97,486. But that’s not enough to make the mortgage on $350,000 house affordable. And that’s what you’re looking at as a median home price in North Delridge.

Located in the southwest part of the city, a short drive from the bay, Roxhill makes this list for one major reason. It ranks as the number 8 worst part of Seattle for 2024 because of the high real estate prices.

The median home value in the area comes in at a hefty $507,300. That’s a lot to afford, even when the local median income reaches $83,584.

Also, it’s a lot to spend for the location. Notice we said “near the bay,” not “on the bay.” It will take a 10-minute drive to reach Lincoln Park and the water. You’ll also have to commute to downtown, leaving the area separate from the city’s main attractions.

Rainier Beach sounds like a resort. Like, “Hey, let’s take my private jet to Rainier Beach and spend the weekend skinny dipping and drinking champagne.” Well, it’s not quite on that level. But this portion of southeastern Seattle does sit by the water, overlooking the shores of Lake Washington.

The only other way Rainier Beach resembles an exotic tropical destination: it’s expensive. Not private island expensive. But hard to afford for anyone making a regular salary. The median home value in the area tops $330,000. Meanwhile, the median income barely ticks above $60,000.

Maybe just stay away from any Delridges. They all seem to end up on this list of the worst neighborhoods in Seattle for 2024. Elsewhere, you’ll find North Delridge. Now, you’ve got her southern sister. Meanwhile, this neighborhood’s western neighbor, Roxhill, makes the list as well.

With those associations, you might consider this the bad part of town. But that idea is relative. In some cities, a median income of $75,812 and an unemployment rate of 3.2% would merit a parade. Here, it counts as a sluggish economy. This disconnect comes about because of a comparably high cost of living, with a median home price of $443,260.

Methodology: How we determined the most dangerous Seattle neighborhoods in 2024

To figure out how bad a place is to live in, we only needed to know what kinds of things people like and then decide what places have the least amount of those things. We plugged the following criteria into Saturday Night Science to get the worst neighborhoods in Seattle:

• High crime (Estimated)
• High unemployment (Less jobs)
• Low median income (Less pay)
• Low population density (No things to do)
• Low home values (No one’s willing to pay to live here)

Then, we ranked each neighborhood in Seattle, Washington for each of these criteria from worst to best.

Next, we averaged the individual rankings for each criterion into a “Worst Score.”

The neighborhood with the lowest “Worst Score” ranks as the most dangerous neighborhood of Seattle.

The article is an opinion based on facts and is meant as infotainment. We updated this article for 2024. This report is our time ranking the worst neighborhoods to live in Seattle.

Skip to the end to see the list of all 77 neighborhoods ranked from worst to best.