Best PlacesBeckley, WV Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Beckley metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Tim Kiser ( w:User:Malepheasant ), CC BY-SA 3.0 us, via commons
Beckley ranks 367th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on health outcomes and low incomes. It does better on tree cover, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Beckley metro
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.
The best areas in Beckley
The towns and districts of the Beckley metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Daniels, Beaver & Shady Spring
Incomes run higher, local pay stretches further, and more adults hold degrees.
Fayetteville & Oak Hill
Tree cover is thicker and fewer homes sit empty.
Ameagle
It is quieter, though fewer residents vote.
Downtown Beckley
Commutes are shorter, though prices have run up more.
Crab Orchard
Fewer households have young kids.
Scores across Beckley run from about the 2nd to the 81st percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Beckley's strengths and weaknesses
Beckley ranks near the bottom because several of the basics fall short at once. Tree cover is the standout, in the top 1% of metro areas. Low property taxes and quiet follow.
The weak spots are broad rather than narrow: health outcomes, low incomes, and biking all drag on the score. Those are area averages, and the map below shows which parts run well above them.
Where Beckley ranks high
- Tree shadeBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Low property taxBetter than 87% of metro areas
- QuietBetter than 86% of metro areas
- Heat safetyBetter than 80% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than 76% of metro areas
Where Beckley ranks low
- Health outlookBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- Household income$54,947 median, better than only 1% of metro areas
- BikingBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- Cell coverageBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 3% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Beckley
A household needs to earn about $35,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Beckley home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $54,947, 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 Beckley's effective rate of 0.52%, 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 Beckley
Beckley runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Beckley.
Who works in Beckley, and how
Work in Beckley centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 87%
- Work from home 9%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Beckley
Beckley has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas and less parkland per resident than most metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Beckley and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Beckley growing, and who is moving in?
Beckley has lost about 10% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Charleston, WV.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Beckley go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Beckley, month by month
Beckley sees roughly 84 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 43, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 43° | 32° | 23° |
| April | 68° | 53° | 42° |
| July | 84° | 72° | 62° |
| October | 68° | 56° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Beckley
The nearest airport, Raleigh County Memorial, is about 4 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is John Glenn Columbus International, about 178 miles away.
The best schools in and around Beckley
Schools across Beckley average a C−, better than 9% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Hollywood ElementaryB · 48% proficient
- Crescent ElementaryB− · 42% proficient
- Maxwell Hill ElementaryC+ · 37% proficient
Top middle schools
- Park Middle SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
- Shady Spring Middle SchoolC+ · 37% proficient
- Independence Middle SchoolC+ · 37% proficient
Top high schools
- Shady Spring HighC+ · 38% proficient
- Woodrow Wilson High SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
- Liberty High SchoolD+ · 25% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Beckley school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Beckley 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 Beckley against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Beckley suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 9% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Beckley
Is Beckley a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Beckley ranks 367th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on tree cover, low property taxes, and quiet, and lowest on health outcomes and low incomes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Beckley expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $140,676. The overall cost of living runs about 21% below the national average. Set against a $54,947 median income, cost of living beats 3% of metro areas.
Is Beckley safe?
Beckley is safer than 46% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $331 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Beckley?
July highs average about 84 degrees, and January highs near 43 with lows near 23. That works out to about 84 pleasant days a year, more than 46% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Beckley?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Daniels, Beaver & Shady Spring, Fayetteville & Oak Hill, and Ameagle. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Beckley good for families?
Schools beat 9% of metro areas, crime safety beats 46%, and childcare runs $800 a month.
Is Beckley good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 3% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 69% of metro areas. About 9% of workers already work from home.
Compare Beckley with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Beckley. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Beckley 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.
Beckley detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Beckley: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Beckley: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Beckley: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Beckley: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Beckley 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.