Moving to
Salmon Creek.

All Salmon Creek data Compare Salmon Creek

20,017people live here $111,631median household income▲ 38% above US $1,631median rent per month▲ 15% above US $530,100median home value▲ 59% above US

Salmon Creek is an unincorporated community in Clark County, WA. It has no city government: the county runs it, and the Census counts it as its own place.

What it's like to live in Salmon Creek

Salmon Creek is an unincorporated community in Washington with household incomes running above the national average and air quality that stays clean most of the year. Those factors carry real weight for anyone weighing where to move next.

The tradeoffs are worth naming plainly. Salmon Creek deals with rent well above the national average, home prices well above the national average, a population that has been shrinking, and larger class sizes than the national average.

The good

Higher-than-average incomes
Clean air

The not so good

Rent well above the national average
High home prices
Shrinking population
High student-teacher ratio

How Salmon Creek compares

Median household income

Salmon Creek$111,631

Washington avg$98,141

US$80,734

Median rent (per month)

Salmon Creek$1,631

Washington avg$1,760

US$1,413

Median home value

Salmon Creek$530,100

Washington avg$564,600

US$332,700

What it takes to move to Salmon Creek

Based on Salmon Creek's median rent, home value and household income

To rent

$3,262

up front: first month plus a typical one-month deposit

Income to keep rent under 30%: $65,240 a year
45% of Salmon Creek renters spend 30% or more of their income on rent

To buy

$106,020

a 20% down payment on the median home

With 10% down: $53,010
Homes cost 4.7× the typical local household income (US: 4.1×)

Moving costs, closing costs and taxes not included.

The details

Cost of living▲ 15% above US

$1,631/mo median rent

Rent runs on the higher side, at $1,631 a month median. Whether that premium makes sense usually comes down to the local job market and what it pays. Home prices are steep, with a median around $530,100. Renting first to get a feel for the city before buying is often the more practical route.

Median home value $530,100 · 45% of renters cost-burdened

Job market

4.5% county unemployment

Unemployment in Clark County is 4.5%, close to the national average of 4.3%. That's the county-wide rate; BLS doesn't measure a place this size on its own.

Clark County (county-wide)

Safety

144 violent crimes per 100k, whole jurisdiction

Salmon Creek doesn't have its own police department, so there's no crime rate for it alone. The figures shown are for the Clark County Sheriff's Office jurisdiction as a whole, which runs below the national average for violent crime and covers many communities. Individual neighborhoods can differ a lot from that overall rate.

Property crime 912/100k · Policed by Clark County Sheriff's Office (county-wide rate) · 2024 data

Getting around▼ 11% below US

23 min average commute

Commutes are reasonable, averaging 23.2 minutes. Nothing heroic, and there's still time left over for a life after work. 7 in 10 workers drive to work; 25% work from home.

How workers get to work

Drive alone

67%

Work from home

25%

Carpool

3.3%

Walk

3.0%

Other

1.3%

Public transit

0.2%

Climate

Summers are comfortable, with highs around 76°F, and winters are cold, with lows around 32°F and snow a regular occurrence. Rainfall is regular throughout the year.

Average month

High °FLow °FPrecip (in)

30-year averages, 1991–2020

Education & workforceNear US average

36% bachelor's degree or higher

Education levels run about average, with 36% college-educated. It's a mix of white-collar and blue-collar work, which can be an asset or a limitation depending on the field.

Schools

8 public schools inside the boundary

There are 8 public schools inside the boundary. The student-to-teacher ratio is 20:1, slightly above the national average of 16:1.

Parks & recreation

The nearest national park or historic site is Fort Vancouver National Historic Site (6 miles away). There are 3 national parks and sites within a day's drive.

Bottom line

Salmon Creek's strongest points are household incomes running above the national average and air quality that stays clean most of the year; the main tradeoffs are rent well above the national average and home prices well above the national average. A year of median rent ($1,631/mo) equals 18% of the median household income here, less than the 21% typical nationwide. It tends to suit remote workers (25% of workers here already work from home).

See all the data for Salmon Creek →·All Washington cities →