Best PlacesBastian, VA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Bastian, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Bastian ranks 18,775th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on good schools by a wide margin, and empty homes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Bastian
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.
Bastian's strengths and weaknesses
Where Bastian ranks high
- School gradeA, better than 96% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 84% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 83% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 82% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 80% of towns
Where Bastian ranks low
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 16% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 18% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 26% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 26% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Bastian
A household needs to earn about $42,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Bastian home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $70,752, 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 Bastian's effective rate of 0.57%, 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 5 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Bastian
Bastian 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 Bastian.
Who works in Bastian, and how
Work in Bastian centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 80%
- Work from home 16%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Bastian
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Bastian.
What the weather is like in Bastian, month by month
Bastian sees roughly 101 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 81 degrees. January highs sit near 42, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 42° | 32° | 23° |
| April | 66° | 53° | 42° |
| July | 81° | 71° | 62° |
| October | 67° | 55° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Bastian
The nearest airport, Raleigh County Memorial, is about 44 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Charlotte/Douglas International, about 135 miles away.
The best schools in and around Bastian
Schools across Bastian average an A, better than 96% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Bland County ElementaryA · 67% proficient
Top middle schools
- Graham MiddleA+ · 68% proficient
Top high schools
- Graham HighA+ · 86% proficient
- Bland County HighA · 73% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Bastian school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Bastian 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 Bastian against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Bastian
Is Bastian a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Bastian ranks 18,775th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on good schools, low disaster risk, and cheap car insurance, and lowest on empty homes and state finances. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Bastian expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $165,312. The overall cost of living runs about 2% above the national average. Set against a $70,752 median income, cost of living beats 28% of towns.
Is Bastian safe?
Yes, Bastian is safer than 79% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $231 per resident a year.
Compare Bastian with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Bastian. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Bastian 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.
Bastian detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Bastian: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Bastian: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Bastian: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Bastian: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Bastian 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.