The 10 Cheapest Bellevue, WA Neighborhoods To Live In For 2024


The cheapest Bellevue neighborhoods are Phantom Lake and Wilburton for 2024 based on Saturday Night Science.

Worst Neighborhoods In Bellevue
Source: Wikipedia User Jelson25 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Everything else equal, we can all agree that living in a cheaper place is better than living in a more expensive place.

I’d much rather pay $500/mo in rent than $1,000. And I’d rather pay $2 for coffee than $5.

And while every neighbhorhood in Bellevue might be more expensive than living in rural Washington, there are certain neighborhoods that are definitely cheaper.

What exactly are those Bellevue neighborhoods where your dollar goes a little further — you can get that one bedroom instead of the studio?

Instead of relying on public opinion and speculation, we wanted to get the facts straight and determine which neighborhoods in Bellevue are the cheapest using Saturday Night Science.

The Cheapest Neighborhoods In Bellevue For 2024

  1. Phantom Lake
  2. Wilburton
  3. Overlake
  4. North Bellevue
  5. Robinswood
  6. Vasa
  7. Meydenbauer
  8. Bridle Trails
  9. Eastgate
  10. Somerset

What’s the cheapest neighborhood to live in Bellevue for 2024? According to the most recent census data, Phantom Lake looks to be the cheapest Bellevue neighborhood to live in.

At this point, we should make it clear that you do get what you pay for — some of these neighborhoods might not be the best places to live in Bellevue. You could be sacrificing location or crime rates for more space and cheaper groceries.

Read on to see how we determined the places around Bellevue that deserve a little bragging rights, or maybe you’re interested in the worst neighborhoods in Bellevue.

For more Washington reading, check out:


Table Of Contents: Top Ten | Methodology | Summary | Table


The 10 Cheapest Neighborhoods To Live In Bellevue For 2024

Overall SnackAbility

9
/10

Population: 2,111
Cost Of Living Index: 160 (8th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 5.0 (4th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.013 (5th cheapest)
More on Phantom Lake: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

9
/10

Population: 6,416
Cost Of Living Index: 159 (7th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 4.9 (3rd cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.014 (7th cheapest)
More on Wilburton: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

9
/10

Population: 12,054
Cost Of Living Index: 152 (2nd cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 5.1 (5th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.016 (13th cheapest)
More on Overlake: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

8.5
/10

Population: 2,686
Cost Of Living Index: 185 (20th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 4.7 (cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.013 (2nd cheapest)
More on North Bellevue: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

9
/10

Population: 1,997
Cost Of Living Index: 152 (2nd cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 6.0 (15th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.014 (8th cheapest)
More on Robinswood: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

8.5
/10

Population: 1,354
Cost Of Living Index: 167 (9th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 5.7 (11th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.014 (6th cheapest)
More on Vasa: Data | Real Estate

Meydenbauer Bellevue, WA

Source: Flickr User Atomic Taco | CC BY-SA 2.0
Overall SnackAbility

10
/10

Population: 5,341
Cost Of Living Index: 197 (23rd cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 4.8 (2nd cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.01 (cheapest)
More on Meydenbauer: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

9
/10

Population: 11,874
Cost Of Living Index: 168 (11th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 5.2 (6th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.016 (12th cheapest)
More on Bridle Trails: Data | Real Estate

Eastgate Bellevue, WA

Source: Wikipedia User | GFDL
Overall SnackAbility

9
/10

Population: 7,474
Cost Of Living Index: 172 (16th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 5.3 (7th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.015 (10th cheapest)
More on Eastgate: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

10
/10

Population: 13,712
Cost Of Living Index: 185 (20th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 5.3 (8th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.014 (9th cheapest)
More on Somerset: Data | Real Estate

Methodology: How We Determined The Cheapest Bellevue Hoods In 2024

To rank the cheapest places to live in Bellevue, we had to determine what criteria define “cheap” and then apply Saturday Night Science.

Using Census and extrapolated BLS data, we arrived at the following set of criteria:

  • Overall Cost Of Living
  • Rent To Income Ratio
  • Median Home Value To Income Ratio

We then ranked each neighborhood with scores from 1 to 23 in each category, where 1 was the cheapest.

Next, we averaged the rankings for each neighborhood to create a cheap neighborhood index.

And finally, we crowned the neighborhood with the lowest cheapest neighborhood index, the “Cheapest City Neighborhood In Bellevue.” We’re lookin’ at you, Phantom Lake.

We updated this article for 2024. This is our fourth time ranking the cheapest neighborhoods to live in Bellevue. Skip to the end to see the list of all the neighborhoods in the city, from cheapest to most expensive.

Summary: Lowest Cost Places To Live In Bellevue

If you’re measuring the neighborhoods in Bellevue where prices are low, and it’s cheap to live, this is an accurate list.

The most affordable neighborhoods in Bellevue are Phantom Lake, Wilburton, Overlake, North Bellevue, Robinswood, Vasa, Meydenbauer, Bridle Trails, Eastgate, and Somerset.

As mentioned earlier, the neighborhoods in Bellevue aren’t all cheap. Hidden Valley takes the title of the most expensive neighborhood to live in Bellevue.

The most expensive neighborhoods in Bellevue are Hidden Valley, Woodbridge, West Lake Sammamish, Downtown, and Interlake.

We ranked the neighborhoods from cheapest to most expensive in the chart below.

For more Washington reading, check out:

Detailed List Of The Cheapest Neighborhoods To Live In Bellevue For 2024

Rank Neighborhood Cost Of Living Index
1 Phantom Lake 160
2 Wilburton 159
3 Overlake 152
4 North Bellevue 185
5 Robinswood 152
6 Vasa 167
7 Meydenbauer 197
8 Bridle Trails 168
9 Eastgate 172
10 Somerset 185
11 Factoria 158
12 Lakemont 196
13 Enatai 136
14 Lake Hills 155
15 Newport Hills 168
16 Crossroads 156
17 Newport Shores 192
18 Tam O’shanter 179
19 Interlake 168
20 Downtown 170
21 West Lake Sammamish 179
22 Woodbridge 172
23 Hidden Valley 171
About Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar has been in the real estate business for almost ten years now. He originally worked for Movoto Real Estate as the director of marketing before founding HomeSnacks.

He believes the key to finding the right place to live comes down to looking at the data, reading about things to do, and, most importantly, checking it out yourself before you move.

If you've been looking for a place to live in the past several years, you've probably stumbled upon his writing already.

You can find out more about him on LinkedIn or his website.