The 10 Worst Tacoma Suburbs For 2023

The 10 Worst Tacoma Suburbs To Live For 2023

We’ll get the ball rolling with Tukwila, the absolute worst place to live around Tacoma 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 5th worst in the Tacoma area, and to make matters worse, the city ranks 16th 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 10.0 miles to Tacoma. Income levels here are the 14th lowest in the metro area, where families bring in about $78,040 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 Tacoma suburb you can live in. You might have expected to see Bremerton 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 Tacoma suburbs.

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

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

Not only that, but this is the 15th worst unemployed suburb you can live in if you choose to live near Tacoma. Remember, we looked at 45 cities for this study.

Lakewood is about 6.8 miles to downtown.

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

All snarkiness aside, Fife has the 10th lowest home values in the metro Tacoma area, where the median price is $337,200. The median income is $250,001.

Fife has an unemployment rate of 4.86% which ranks 24th worst.

SeaTac has 30,867 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 10.711414790996782%.

Ah, Rainier. You rank as the 7th worst place to live around Tacoma.

It’s the place with the 9th most out of work residents in the Tacoma metro area (6.15%).

Eatonville is a city about 28.0 miles from Tacoma, but Tacoma 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. Eatonville has the 9th most uninsured people, 18th worst incomes, and has the 18th highest unemployment rate (5.14%) in the entire Tacoma metro area.

Homes only cost $305,700 for a reason. That’s cheap for Tacoma standards.

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

About 6.45% of residents are out of work.

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

Located 14.9 miles outside the city, Kents is a real pit when you look at the data. Its residents have the 4th highest unemployment rate (7.45%), and poverty is far above the area average.