Seattle/Ballard
Official district: Ballard
Data vintage. ACS 2024 5-year · SPD Oct 2025 – Sep 2026 · OSM Sep 2026 · updated Sep 2026
Old fishing town, new apartments. The locks and the Sunday market set the postcard; Ballard Avenue sets the night.
Best in Seattle for familiesWalkable SeattleUnder $2,500 rent
118 violent · 1904 property · 44.2 per 1k (Oct 2025 – Sep 2026)-3 vs city set
Rating 7.6 / 10 nearby+16 vs city set
OSM: 23 groceries · 48 cafes · 119 transit · 53 parks-1 vs city set
$2,263 ACS median vs your rent budget-1 vs city set
OSM: 48 cafes · 111 restaurants · 54 bars · 53 parks+2 vs city set
From Ballard, a typical weekday is 22 min to Downtown, 18 min to South Lake Union, 22 min to University. Not live traffic.
South Lake Union is the fastest of these three job centers from here.
Pike Place, Pioneer Square · +4 min vs the city-set median
Amazon, Cascade · -1 min vs the city-set median · fastest of these three
UW campus, the Ave · +1 min vs the city-set median
Minutes are baked from neighborhood geography to three job centers — not Google, not this hour’s traffic.
The ACS median rent is $2,263 — every occupied rental mixed together, not the 1-bed in the window.
That is 18% of median household income — under the 30% HUD line. A household at this area’s median income ($153K) could “afford” about $3,835 a month at 30% of pay.
51% of households rent. Median home value is $981,868.
ACS 5-year median gross rent for Seattle city. Up 79% since 2014. Ballard is 11% above the 2024 city median.
Overlapping 5-year ACS windows (B25064), not asking rent. Census does not publish a rent series for each official neighborhood, so the line is the city place. The dashed mark is this area’s ACS 2024 median.
HUD treats 30% of income as the cost-burden line. We do not split ACS rent into 1-bed vs 2-bed. Method.
Within a short walk of this official district: 23 groceries, 48 cafes, 53 parks, and 119 transit stops.
Daily errands and coffee are realistic on foot. Parks are close — 53 mapped parks in that radius. Transit is dense (119 stops or stations).
48 cafes and 111 restaurants make this one of the busier food pockets in the Seattle set.
OpenStreetMap, 800 meters. Not a Walk Score license. More groceries than 15 of the other 19 areas in this city.
ACS 2024 5-year (2020-2024) · 10 census tracts · SPD Oct 2025 – Sep 2026 · OSM 2026-09-04
Crime is SPD Part I reports per 1,000 ACS residents — not a judgment of who lives here. Home and rent figures are ACS medians, not live MLS. Read the method.
What it is like to live here, beyond the scores.
Ballard was a fishing town; the apartments arrived later. The locks and Golden Gardens are the water. Ballard Avenue is the night. Search Shilshole or Sunset Hill if you want the quieter west edge of the same official district. Young households who want a grocery and a pint on foot land here — and pay for it.
The Sunday market is real; the Sunday parking is also real. Light rail is still a bus away. Weight walk and nightlife. If you wanted a peninsula and a park, Magnolia is the calmer official neighbor. If you wanted the lake loop, that is North Central — Fremont and Green Lake glued together.
Compiled from Zillow neighborhood guides, 5280 Magazine, Chicago and San Francisco resident guides, Mpls With Love, Eastside LA reporting, Seattle Times coverage, and local writing, 2025–2026. Editorial — not part of the fit score.
City 311 service requests in this official unit, last 14 days. This is what neighbors filed with the city — not a chat thread, and not part of the fit score.
1,049 reports
City of Seattle 311 (Find It, Fix It), last 14 days, mapped to Neighborhood Map Atlas districts. No street addresses stored. Method.
Public posts from r/Seattle that mention this neighborhood. Not Nextdoor, not people on this block, and not part of the fit score.
In r/Seattle lately: the beach, food, and pets.
r/Seattle · Aug 31 · 34 upvotes · 40 comments
r/Seattle · Aug 30 · 50 upvotes · 16 comments
r/Seattle · Aug 29 · 30 upvotes · 1 comment
The line above is a reading of the titles, not a verdict. Up to 3 links, last 90 days, snapshot 2026-09-01. Method.
Straight answers from the numbers on this page.
Ballard is middle of the pack for Part I here (safety 47 vs city 50). SPD logged 2.6 violent and 41.6 property incidents per 1,000 residents — 44.2 combined. Visitors count in those numbers. This is not a judgment of who lives here.
ACS median rent is $2,263 — studios through large apartments mixed together. About 51% of households rent. Median home value is $981,868. Survey medians, not a listing you can message tonight.
Walk is 35 here vs 36 for the Seattle set — you will likely drive or ride for a weekly shop. Inside 800 meters: 23 groceries, 48 cafes, 119 transit stops, 53 parks. Not a Walk Score license.
The scores lean family relative to this city set. Nearby school rating is 7.6 / 10. Median age is 36.7. That rating is not your assigned campus.
22 typical weekday minutes to Downtown. Not the app on your phone this hour. Other job centers are further down this page.
About 45,725 people. Median income $153K. 78% have a bachelor's or higher.
Northwest, Magnolia, North Central sit closest on this map. If you are choosing between two official districts, start with Ballard vs Northwest.
Adjacent on the map, ranked with your weights.
Ballard vs NorthwestBallard vs MagnoliaBallard vs North Central
$2K median rent
The official district glues Fremont, Wallingford, Green Lake, and Phinney Ridge. Search those names. The troll, the lake loop, and the Sunday streets are all in here.
$2K median rent
Greenwood’s strip and Broadview’s bluff. Search Greenwood; the official district runs to the county line. More house than Fremont, more car than Ballard.
$3K median rent
A peninsula with one way in. Discovery Park is the amenity; the quiet is the product. You will drive more than you think, and hear less than almost anywhere else on this map.
$2K median rent
The hill looks at downtown; Lower Queen Anne eats after the game. Counterbalance and a grocery you can walk to if you picked the right side of the ridge.
$2K median rent
The cut between Magnolia and Queen Anne. Tracks, yards, a driving range, and a few apartment stacks. You live here for the commute, not the block party.