Seattle/Northgate
Official district: Northgate
Data vintage. ACS 2024 5-year · SPD Oct 2025 – Sep 2026 · OSM Sep 2026 · updated Sep 2026
The mall became light rail and apartments. Maple Leaf’s bungalows sit next to a station that did not exist a decade ago. North-end practical, not a postcard.
Best in Seattle for familiesWalkable SeattleUnder $2,500 rent
159 violent · 1398 property · 35.3 per 1k (Oct 2025 – Sep 2026)+13 vs city set
Rating 6.8 / 10 nearby-10 vs city set
OSM: 20 groceries · 16 cafes · 154 transit · 108 parks+1 vs city set
$1,948 ACS median vs your rent budget+2 vs city set
OSM: 16 cafes · 63 restaurants · 6 bars · 108 parks-2 vs city set
From Northgate, a typical weekday is 24 min to Downtown, 20 min to South Lake Union, 16 min to University. Not live traffic.
University is the fastest of these three job centers from here.
Pike Place, Pioneer Square · +6 min vs the city-set median
Amazon, Cascade · +1 min vs the city-set median
UW campus, the Ave · -5 min vs the city-set median · fastest of these three
Minutes are baked from neighborhood geography to three job centers — not Google, not this hour’s traffic.
The ACS median rent is $1,948 — every occupied rental mixed together, not the 1-bed in the window.
That is 21% of median household income — under the 30% HUD line. A household at this area’s median income ($110K) could “afford” about $2,751 a month at 30% of pay.
55% of households rent. Median home value is $821,263.
ACS 5-year median gross rent for Seattle city. Up 79% since 2014. Northgate is 4% below 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: 20 groceries, 16 cafes, 108 parks, and 154 transit stops.
Daily errands and coffee are realistic on foot. Parks are close — 108 mapped parks in that radius. Transit is dense (154 stops or stations).
16 cafes and 63 restaurants make this one of the busier food pockets in the Seattle set.
OpenStreetMap, 800 meters. Not a Walk Score license. More groceries than 13 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.
The mall became a station and apartments. Maple Leaf’s bungalows are still bungalows. This is north-end Seattle learning to be a transit neighborhood without quite becoming one yet.
Light rail is the new fact. The grocery is still a short drive for a lot of blocks. Weight commute and cost. Lake City is the strip version. Northwest is Greenwood’s version of the same latitude.
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.
513 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: a few posts that name Northgate.
r/Seattle · Aug 22 · 76 upvotes · 26 comments
r/Seattle · Aug 23 · 48 upvotes · 16 comments
r/Seattle · Aug 30 · 23 comments
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.
Northgate is middle of the pack for Part I here (safety 63 vs city 50). SPD logged 3.6 violent and 31.7 property incidents per 1,000 residents — 35.3 combined. Visitors count in those numbers. This is not a judgment of who lives here.
ACS median rent is $1,948 — studios through large apartments mixed together. About 55% of households rent. Median home value is $821,263. Survey medians, not a listing you can message tonight.
Walk is 37 here vs 36 for the Seattle set — you will likely drive or ride for a weekly shop. Inside 800 meters: 20 groceries, 16 cafes, 154 transit stops, 108 parks. Not a Walk Score license.
The scores lean family relative to this city set. Nearby school rating is 6.8 / 10. Median age is 36.5. That rating is not your assigned campus.
24 typical weekday minutes to Downtown. Not the app on your phone this hour. Other job centers are further down this page.
About 44,064 people. Median income $110K. 62% have a bachelor's or higher.
North Central, Northwest, University District sit closest on this map. If you are choosing between two official districts, start with Northgate vs North Central.
Adjacent on the map, ranked with your weights.
Northgate vs North CentralNorthgate vs NorthwestNorthgate vs University District
$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
Old fishing town, new apartments. The locks and the Sunday market set the postcard; Ballard Avenue sets the night.
$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.
$2K median rent
Lake City Way is the strip; Matthews Beach is the water. North-end practical — more car than Ballard, cheaper than the lake-adjacent northeast.
$2K median rent
The Ave, the campus, and a median income that student households pull down. Light rail now. It is a neighborhood you age out of, or a neighborhood you never leave because of the bus.