Best PlacesBlacksburg, VA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Blacksburg metro, 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.
Photo by Smash the Iron Cage, CC BY-SA 4.0, via wiki
Blacksburg ranks 130th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It does not top any single list, but it lands above the national middle on low disaster risk and good schools. The weaker spots are empty homes, state finances, and cell coverage.
The best neighborhoods in the Blacksburg 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 Blacksburg
The towns and districts of the Blacksburg 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.
Downtown Blacksburg
More adults hold degrees, biking is better, and health outcomes score higher.
Christiansburg
More households have young kids, though it is noisier.
Radford
Fewer homes sit empty, though tree cover is thinner.
Riner & Willis
More residents vote, though commutes are longer.
Dublin
Homes cost less and crime runs lower.
Floyd
Streets are more car-dependent and local pay stretches less far.
Pearisburg & Narrows
Transit reaches fewer jobs and advertised internet is slower.
Pulaski
Prices have run up less, though incomes run lower.
Blacksburg shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 7% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Blacksburg's strengths and weaknesses
Blacksburg lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Low disaster risk, good schools, and heat safety carry most of that.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Empty homes, state finances, and cell coverage hold the score down. The detail is below, and the map is where it turns into a choice of neighborhood rather than just a place.
Where Blacksburg ranks high
- Disaster safetyBetter than 96% of metro areas
- School gradeA−, better than 96% of metro areas
- Heat safetyBetter than 93% of metro areas
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 92% of metro areas
- Educational attainmentBetter than 90% of metro areas
Where Blacksburg ranks low
- Low vacancyBetter than only 9% of metro areas
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 13% of metro areas
- Cell coverageBetter than only 16% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than only 18% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than only 22% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Blacksburg
A household needs to earn about $71,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Blacksburg home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $71,890, 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 Blacksburg'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, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Blacksburg
Blacksburg's age mix sits close to the national median, 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 Blacksburg.
Who works in Blacksburg, and how
Work in Blacksburg centers on education and manufacturing. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 78%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 11%
Life in Blacksburg
Blacksburg has more restaurants and bars per resident than 71% of metro areas and more late-night spots per resident than 90% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Blacksburg and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Blacksburg growing, and who is moving in?
Blacksburg has held roughly flat in population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Washington, DC.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Blacksburg go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Blacksburg, month by month
Blacksburg sees roughly 85 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 46, with lows near 25. The comfortable stretch runs April through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 46° | 34° | 25° |
| April | 70° | 55° | 42° |
| July | 86° | 74° | 64° |
| October | 70° | 57° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Blacksburg
The nearest airport, Roanoke/Blacksburg Regional (Woodrum Field), is about 26 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Raleigh-Durham International, about 130 miles away.
The best schools in and around Blacksburg
Schools across Blacksburg average an A−, better than 96% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Gilbert Linkous ElementaryA+ · 82% proficient
- Harding Avenue ElementaryA+ · 77% proficient
- Margaret Beeks ElementaryA · 72% proficient
Top middle schools
- Blacksburg MiddleA+ · 69% proficient
- Christiansburg MiddleB+ · 52% proficient
- Shawsville MiddleB · 46% proficient
Top high schools
- Blacksburg HighA+ · 84% proficient
- Christiansburg HighA · 73% proficient
- Eastern Montgomery HighA− · 67% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Blacksburg school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Blacksburg 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 Blacksburg against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Blacksburg suits
Common questions about living in Blacksburg
Is Blacksburg a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Blacksburg ranks 130th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on low disaster risk, good schools, and heat safety, 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 Blacksburg expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $273,776. The overall cost of living runs about 13% below the national average. Set against a $71,890 median income, cost of living beats 30% of metro areas.
Is Blacksburg safe?
Yes, Blacksburg is safer than 58% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $331 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Blacksburg?
July highs average about 86 degrees, and January highs near 46 with lows near 25. That works out to about 85 pleasant days a year, more than 47% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Blacksburg?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Downtown Blacksburg, Christiansburg, and Radford. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Blacksburg good for families?
Schools beat 96% of metro areas, crime safety beats 58%, and childcare runs $775 a month.
Is Blacksburg good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 30% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 18% of metro areas. About 11% of workers already work from home.
Compare Blacksburg with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Blacksburg. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Blacksburg 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.
Blacksburg detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Blacksburg: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Blacksburg: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Blacksburg: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Blacksburg: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Blacksburg 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.