Bellingham tops new ranking of America’s coziest cities

By AI, Created 11:26 AM UTC, June 03, 2026, /AGP/ – Bellingham, Washington, was ranked the coziest metro in America in a new study from Best Burn Firewood that scored 98 U.S. metros on fireplace prevalence, climate, coffee shop density and firewood demand. The Pacific Northwest dominated the top tier, and the full list, interactive map and dataset are now public.

Why it matters: - The ranking tries to measure where Americans are most likely to want fireplaces, cold-weather comfort and firewood demand. - The study points to a strong Pacific Northwest tilt in the kind of climate and housing stock that supports a “cozy” lifestyle.

What happened: - Best Burn Firewood released its “Coziest Cities in America 2026” study on June 3, 2026. - Bellingham, Washington took No. 1 with a composite cozy score of 8.05 out of 10. - Portland, Oregon ranked No. 2 at 7.54. - Eugene, Oregon ranked No. 3 at 6.87. - Salem, Oregon ranked No. 4 at 6.74. - Seattle, Washington ranked No. 5 at 6.39. - Five of the top nine cities were in the Pacific Northwest.

The details: - The study analyzed 2,972,767 real home sales across 98 U.S. metros. - Best Burn Firewood used a weighted four-metric model built from fireplace prevalence, climate, coffee shop density and regional demand for firewood. - Fireplace prevalence carried the most weight at 35%. - Climate accounted for 30% of the score, based on average cloudy days and rain days from NOAA 1991-2020 Climate Normals. - Coffee shop density made up 20% of the score, using shops per 100,000 residents from WalletHub 2025 and Clever Real Estate. - Google Trends regional search interest for “fireplace” made up the remaining 15%. - The initial dataset covered 217 metros. - Researchers screened out metros that did not meet both climate thresholds: at least 100 cloudy days per year and a mean January temperature below 40 degrees Fahrenheit. - That left 98 qualified cities. - Scores were normalized to a 0-10 scale with min-max scaling across the qualified set. - Sioux Falls, South Dakota recorded the highest raw fireplace rate at 39.4%. - Anchorage, Alaska ranked No. 7 despite lower coffee shop density, helped by 239 cloudy days per year and a 17.4% fireplace rate. - Pittsburgh ranked No. 6 as the highest-scoring non-Pacific city, with 203 cloudy days and a 21.1% fireplace rate. - Tyler Mainka, who co-founded Best Burn Firewood with his twin brother Brady, said the company supplies firewood to more than 100 Kwik Trip retail locations in Southeast Wisconsin and to wood-fired restaurants across the region. - Mainka said the study grew out of a recurring question about which parts of the country actually need and use firewood the most.

Between the lines: - Fireplace prevalence appears to be the strongest signal in the model, which suggests the ranking is as much about housing and heating habits as about weather alone. - The Pacific Northwest’s dominance hints that mild-but-cloudy, fireplace-friendly metros may fit the study’s definition of “cozy” better than colder inland markets. - Coffee shop density helped reinforce urban comfort and walkability, but it mattered less than climate and fireplaces in the final score.

What’s next: - Best Burn Firewood says the full ranked list of 15 cities, interactive map, methodology and dataset are available in the company’s study page. - The raw dataset has also been published on data.world and archived with a permanent DOI through Zenodo: archived dataset. - Best Burn Firewood continues distributing kiln-dried firewood to residential customers, retail chains, campgrounds and wood-fired restaurants across the Midwest and nationally.

The bottom line: - Bellingham now has the data-backed bragging rights as America’s coziest city, and the numbers favor cold, cloudy metros where fireplaces still matter.