These Are The Best Puget Sound Cities, Suburbs, And Neighborhoods

REDMOND, WA - The website Niche has released yet another ranking of the "best" places in the country, including places in Puget Sound. But as with all these lists, a lot of good local spots got left off.

Right off the bat: Bellevue (10) and Seattle (14) are the only local cities in the top 25 of Niche's list of "best cities" overall. Redmond was the ranked the best suburb in the state, with mega-rich Clyde Hill and Bellevue a far second and third.

Redmond's Overlake neighborhood was rated one of the top 10 places in general to live nationwide. Four more places made it into the top 50: Westlake in Seattle, Northeast Bellevue, West Bellevue, and Bridle Trails (Bellevue).

Notice a trend? All nice places, but also all very wealthy. Apparently factors like being Jimi Hendrix's final resting place (Renton) or having spectacular wineries (Woodinville) don't count.

But, there are some 51,000 cities, suburbs, and neighborhoods on the list, and many in Puget Sound are on there - just a little lower than, you know, Clyde Hill.

The top 10 best places to live in America, according to Niche, are:

1. Bluemont, neighborhood in Arlington, Virginia
2. Carmel, Indiana
3. Overlake, neighborhood in Redmond, Washington
4. College Terrace, neighborhood in Palo Alto, California
5. Davis Island, neighborhood in Tampa, Florida
6. Rose Isle, neighborhood in Orlando, Florida
7. Colonial Village, neighborhood in Arlington, Virginia
8. Okemos, Michigan
9. Chesterbrook, Pennsylvania
10. Radnor/Fort Myer Heights, neighborhood in Arlington, Virginia

Niche released its “Best Places to Live” rankings on Monday. The publication says its goal is to “provide accurate, comparable and thorough evaluations of places.” Using data from government and private sources, Niche grades the places evaluated for the rankings on factors like public schools, crime and safety and housing.

You can see the full Niche “Best Place to Live” rankings for 2019 here.