Best Places23389, VA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood inside ZIP code 23389, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

23389 ranks 17,594th of 33,110 U.S. zip codes on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on civic engagement by a wide margin, and walkability ranks lowest.

#17,594
of 33,110 zip codes
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 33,110 zip codes
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in 23389

Map of the best neighborhoods in the 23389 area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.

23389's strengths and weaknesses

Top 1%Civic engagement
Top 5%A strong job market
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare 23389 with other zip codes.

Where 23389 ranks high

  • Voter turnoutBetter than 99% of zip codes
  • Local economyBetter than 96% of zip codes
  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than 90% of zip codes
  • Low property taxBetter than 88% of zip codes
  • Low vacancyBetter than 88% of zip codes

Where 23389 ranks low

  • WalkabilityBetter than only 5% of zip codes
  • Disaster safetyBetter than only 5% of zip codes
  • Cell coverageBetter than only 8% of zip codes
  • State fiscal healthBetter than only 16% of zip codes
  • Internet speedBetter than only 17% of zip codes

What it costs to buy a home in 23389

A household needs to earn about $132,000 a year to comfortably buy the median 23389 home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $56,731, so buying stretches a typical household.

Income to buy the median home
$132,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$3,079
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $531,600 home

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$2,710
Property tax$191
Homeowners insurance$177

Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses 23389's effective rate of 0.43%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.


Who lives in 23389

23389 runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.

Median age
71
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
72%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
1.7
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 180%
18 to 349%
35 to 498%
50 to 6412%
65 and older72%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for 23389.


Who works in 23389, and how

Work in 23389 centers on retail trade and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
7%
below the national average
Unemployment
1.2%
below the national average
Job growth
+5.1%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Retail trade44%
Manufacturing22%
Health care & social14%
Other services9%
Professional & technical6%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 90%
  • Work from home 7%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 3%

Life in 23389

The coast is about 23 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across 23389, which the map shows.

To the coast
23 min
drive to the nearest ocean beaches

What the weather is like in 23389, month by month

23389 sees roughly 70 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 47, with lows near 30. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January47°39°30°
April67°56°46°
July87°78°70°
October72°61°51°

Flying in and out of 23389

The nearest airport, Salisbury-Ocean City Wicomico Regional, is about 50 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Richmond International, about 82 miles away.

Nearest airport
SBY
Salisbury-Ocean City Wicomico Regional, about 50 miles
Airport size
Nonhub
258th-busiest in the US, 7 nonstop destinations
Average drive
72 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around 23389

Schools across 23389 average a B+, better than 80% of zip codes.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every 23389 school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


23389 measure by measure

Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare 23389 against the other 33,109 zip codes.


Common questions about living in 23389

Is 23389 a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, 23389 ranks 17,594th of 33,110 zip codes. It scores highest on civic engagement, a strong job market, and cheap car insurance, and lowest on walkability and disaster risk. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is 23389 expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $531,600. The overall cost of living runs about 11% below the national average. Set against a $56,731 median income, cost of living beats 40% of zip codes.

Is 23389 safe?

23389 is safer than 53% of zip codes. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $301 per resident a year.


Compare 23389 with other zip codes


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to 23389. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in 23389 represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.

23389 detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for 23389: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in 23389: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of 23389: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in 23389: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

23389 detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.