Tacoma, WA: Local News, Events & Neighbors

Tacoma ( tə-KOH-mə) is a city in and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Puget Sound roughly 30 miles (48 km) from Seattle and Olympia, and 58 miles (93 km) northwest of Mount Rainier National Park. Tacoma is the second-largest city in the Puget Sound area and the third-most populous city in the state with a population of 219,346 at the 2020 census. Tacoma is the economic and cultural center of the South Sound region, which has a population of about 1 million. Tacoma adopted its name after the nearby Mount Rainier, called təˡqʷuʔbəʔ in the Puget Sound Salish dialect, and "Takhoma" in an anglicized version. It is locally known as the…

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From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)

How Tacoma ranks

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#115Most educated in WA #118Most remote workers in WA #121Most affordable in WA All WA rankings →

Town numbers

ZIP code98401, 98402, 98403

Area code253

Living in Tacoma

Housing in Tacoma

$489K≈ same as a year ago Typical home value · Zillow

The typical Tacoma home is worth about $489,000, about the same as a year ago, 17% below the Washington typical home.

A seller's market

Buyer’sBalancedSeller’s

Days on market8

Sale-to-list101.3%

Sold in May224

Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data CenterHousing market →

Safety in Tacoma

D⁻

Safety Grade D-

Tacoma reports more crime per resident than most U.S. towns we grade: about 99% report less.

Violent crime per 1,000

Tacoma 8.6

Washington 2.9

U.S. 3.3

Property crime per 1,000

Tacoma 39.4

Washington 20.2

U.S. 15.5

FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to policeCrime & safety →

Schools in Tacoma

All Tacoma schools →

C⁺

School Grade C+

The public schools Tacoma’s kids attend, from kindergarten through graduation, trail 62% of Washington’s districts on state tests and graduation. Among towns with similar incomes, they rank near the bottom.

DistrictTacoma School DistrictSchools84

Sheridan Elementary SchoolElementary · Grades PK–5 · 525 students Geiger Montessori SchoolElementary · Grades PK–5 · 521 students Boze Elementary SchoolElementary · Grades PK–5 · 485 students Birney Elementary SchoolElementary · Grades PK–5 · 476 students Helen Stafford Elementary SchoolElementary · Grades PK–5 · 453 students Crescent Heights Elementary SchoolElementary · Grades K–5 · 451 students

School data from the U.S. Department of Education (NCES, EDFacts). The School Grade is our own summary of state test results and graduation rates, graded within WA. Ratings are from neighbors.

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