Best PlacesAbingdon, VA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Abingdon, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Abingdon ranks 9,781st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on good schools by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Abingdon
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.
Abingdon's strengths and weaknesses
Where Abingdon ranks high
- School gradeA, better than 96% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 94% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 91% of towns
- TransitBetter than 89% of towns
- Cheap childcare$562 a month, better than 85% of towns
Where Abingdon ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 13% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 16% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 25% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 32% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 39% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Abingdon
A household needs to earn about $64,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Abingdon home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $70,248, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
Where the monthly payment goes
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 Abingdon's effective rate of 0.51%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 10 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Abingdon
Abingdon runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Abingdon.
Who works in Abingdon, and how
Work in Abingdon centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 89%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Abingdon
Abingdon has more restaurants and bars per resident than 80% of towns and more parkland per resident than 89% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Abingdon and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Abingdon, month by month
Abingdon sees roughly 89 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 45, with lows near 29. The comfortable stretch runs April through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 45° | 36° | 29° |
| April | 68° | 56° | 46° |
| July | 85° | 74° | 66° |
| October | 70° | 58° | 49° |
Flying in and out of Abingdon
The nearest airport, Tri-Cities, is about 28 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Charlotte/Douglas International, about 118 miles away.
The best schools in and around Abingdon
Schools across Abingdon average an A, better than 96% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Watauga ElementaryA+ · 80% proficient
- Greendale ElementaryA+ · 75% proficient
- High Point ElementaryA+ · 74% proficient
Top middle schools
- Damascus MiddleA+ · 72% proficient
- Wallace MiddleA+ · 71% proficient
- E.b. Stanley MiddleA+ · 70% proficient
Top high schools
- Holston HighA · 75% proficient
- Abingdon HighA · 75% proficient
- Chilhowie HighA · 70% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Abingdon school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Abingdon 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 Abingdon against the other 50,332 towns.
Who Abingdon suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 8% already work from home.
Retirees
The weather beats 59% of towns and health care access beats 77%.
Common questions about living in Abingdon
Is Abingdon a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Abingdon ranks 9,781st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on good schools, low disaster risk, and cheap car insurance, and lowest on noise and state finances. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Abingdon expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $254,801. The overall cost of living runs about 14% below the national average. Set against a $70,248 median income, cost of living beats 56% of towns.
Is Abingdon safe?
Yes, Abingdon is safer than 75% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $247 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Abingdon?
July highs average about 85 degrees, and January highs near 45 with lows near 29. That works out to about 89 pleasant days a year, more than 59% of towns.
Is Abingdon good for families?
Schools beat 96% of towns, crime safety beats 75%, and childcare runs $562 a month.
Compare Abingdon with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Abingdon. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Abingdon 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.
Abingdon detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Abingdon: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Abingdon: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Abingdon: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Abingdon: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Abingdon detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- 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.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.