Best PlacesBall Ground, GA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Ball Ground, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Ball Ground ranks 4,108th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on what local pay buys by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Ball Ground
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.
Ball Ground's strengths and weaknesses
Where Ball Ground ranks high
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 94% of towns
- Household income$119,071 median, better than 93% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than 91% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 89% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 88% of towns
Where Ball Ground ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 24% of towns
- Short commute32.0 minutes each way, better than only 24% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 25% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 27% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 28% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Ball Ground
A household needs to earn about $113,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Ball Ground home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $119,071, 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 Ball Ground's effective rate of 0.71%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Ball Ground
Ball Ground's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Ball Ground.
Who works in Ball Ground, and how
Work in Ball Ground centers on construction and professional & technical. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 82%
- Work from home 16%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Ball Ground
Ball Ground has more parkland per resident than 95% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Ball Ground and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Ball Ground, month by month
Ball Ground sees roughly 96 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 52, with lows near 35. The comfortable stretch runs March through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 52° | 42° | 35° |
| April | 73° | 61° | 50° |
| July | 89° | 78° | 69° |
| October | 75° | 63° | 53° |
Flying in and out of Ball Ground
Hartsfield/Jackson Atlanta International sits about 48 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 51.5 million passengers in 2025, with 278 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Ball Ground
Schools across Ball Ground average a B, better than 66% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Macedonia Elementary SchoolA− · 59% proficient
- Matt Elementary SchoolA− · 57% proficient
- Ball Ground Elementary SchoolB · 46% proficient
Top middle schools
- Creekland Middle SchoolA− · 58% proficient
- Liberty Middle SchoolA− · 55% proficient
- Pickens County Junior High SchoolC · 34% proficient
Top high schools
- West Forsyth High SchoolB− · 45% proficient
- Creekview High SchoolB− · 44% proficient
- Cherokee High SchoolB− · 42% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Ball Ground school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Ball Ground 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 Ball Ground against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Ball Ground
Is Ball Ground a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Ball Ground ranks 4,108th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on what local pay buys, high incomes, and few empty homes, and lowest on an overheated housing market and long commutes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Ball Ground expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $438,553. The overall cost of living runs about 8% below the national average. Set against a $119,071 median income, cost of living beats 94% of towns.
Is Ball Ground safe?
Yes, Ball Ground is safer than 88% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $177 per resident a year.
Compare Ball Ground with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Ball Ground. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Ball Ground 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.
Ball Ground detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Ball Ground: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Ball Ground: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Ball Ground: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Ball Ground: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Ball Ground 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.