Cost of Living
per year
per month
How Lakewood's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in Lakewood?
Your $100,000 in Lakewood has the same purchasing power as $81,759 in the average US city. You'd need $18,241 more here to maintain that standard of living.
Demographics and workforce data from the US Census ACS 5-Year.
bachelor's or higher
Climate, safety, and walkability indicators.
See a side-by-side breakdown of cost of living, housing, and salaries.
Popular comparisons
Sorted by affordability — most affordable first.
Within 10 points of Lakewood's cost index of 122, sorted by closest match.
These are the reasons people actually move to Lakewood, ordered roughly by what shows up loudest in the data. Wage income stays untaxed at the state level and daily errands don't require a car lead — the rest unpacked below.
Wage income in Lakewood isn't taxed at the state level. Washington is one of the few US states with no income tax, which is one of the reasons people relocating from high-tax states tend to land here in the first place. (Washington taxes some long-term capital gains over a high threshold, but ordinary wages and salaries are not taxed.)
With a citywide Walk Score of 64/100, Lakewood sits firmly in the walkable-by-US-standards camp. Pick a central neighborhood and most daily errands happen without keys in your hand.
Reasons are pulled from Lakewood's actual data — Census ACS, BLS, BEA, NOAA, EPA AQS, FBI, and Walk Score. We don't list positives that aren't supported by the numbers, which is why different cities show different sections.
Not really a snow town. With winters averaging 38°F, Lakewood sits in the mild-cold band where snowflakes appear occasionally and everything melts within a day. Most years see one storm worth talking about.
Cool, not cold. Winters in Lakewood sit around 38°F — sweater-and-jacket weather most days, with the occasional cold front that reminds you it's still winter.
Warm without being brutal. Summer in Lakewood sits about 75°F on average. Afternoons can push into the high 80s, but mornings and evenings are usually genuinely pleasant.
Zone 9, give or take a half-zone. Lakewood's typical winter low puts it in that band on the USDA Hardiness map, which is what nurseries label plants against. Use Zone 9 as your starting filter; the USDA's interactive map is more precise for borderline cases.
Around 259 feet (79 m) above sea level — flat enough that nothing about Lakewood's altitude shows up in daily life.
Lakewood's reported crime rate runs high: about 6,074 per 100,000 residents, materially above the national average. Specific neighborhoods vary widely, but the city-wide aggregate is on the rougher end of the US distribution.
More expensive than average — by enough to plan around. Lakewood's composite index is 122 versus 100 for the US, with rent and home prices driving most of the gap. Salaries in higher-paying industries usually move together, but the math still tightens for everyone else.
In parts, yes. With a citywide Walk Score of 64/100, Lakewood has genuinely walkable neighborhoods alongside more sprawled stretches. If walkability matters to you, the neighborhood choice will matter more than the city-level number.
As a rule of thumb, plan on about $85,617 to live in Lakewood the way a $70,000 earner lives in a typical US city. The math gets less forgiving the lower you go below that. Median rent in Lakewood runs about $1,318/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.