Best PlacesBraddock Road Metro, Alexandria, VA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Braddock Road Metro, Alexandria, 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.

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Braddock Road Metro, Alexandria ranks 451st of 5,983 U.S. neighborhoods on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on high incomes by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.

#451
of 5,983 neighborhoods
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 5,983 neighborhoods
Your rank
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The best neighborhoods in Braddock Road Metro, Alexandria

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Braddock Road Metro, Alexandria area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
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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.

Braddock Road Metro, Alexandria's strengths and weaknesses

Top 5%High incomes
Top 10%An educated workforce
Top 10%A stable housing market
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Braddock Road Metro, Alexandria with other neighborhoods.

Where Braddock Road Metro, Alexandria ranks high

  • Household income$173,826 median, better than 96% of neighborhoods
  • Educational attainmentBetter than 94% of neighborhoods
  • Housing crash safetyBetter than 92% of neighborhoods
  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than 88% of neighborhoods
  • Cell coverageBetter than 88% of neighborhoods

Where Braddock Road Metro, Alexandria ranks low

  • Cheap childcare$2,092 a month, better than only 4% of neighborhoods
  • QuietBetter than only 8% of neighborhoods
  • Nice weatherabout 64 pleasant days a year, better than only 14% of neighborhoods
  • Short commute31.0 minutes each way, better than only 15% of neighborhoods
  • State fiscal healthBetter than only 17% of neighborhoods

What it costs to buy a home in Braddock Road Metro, Alexandria

A household needs to earn about $209,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Braddock Road Metro, Alexandria home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $173,826, so buying stretches a typical household.

Income to buy the median home
$209,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$4,871
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $792,349 home
Median rent
$2,513
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$4,040
Property tax$567
Homeowners insurance$264

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 Braddock Road Metro, Alexandria's effective rate of 0.86%, 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.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Braddock Road Metro, Alexandria

Braddock Road Metro, Alexandria's age mix sits close to the national median, and households here run smaller than average.

Median age
41
about the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
10%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
1.9
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 188%
18 to 3430%
35 to 4928%
50 to 6423%
65 and older10%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Braddock Road Metro, Alexandria.


Who works in Braddock Road Metro, Alexandria, and how

Work in Braddock Road Metro, Alexandria centers on professional & technical and public administration. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
39%
above the national average
Unemployment
3.1%
below the national average
Job growth
+2.5%
/y 2019-2023, near the national pace

Largest industries

Professional & technical26%
Public administration22%
Other services6%
Real estate6%
Education6%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 42%
  • Work from home 39%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 19%

Life in Braddock Road Metro, Alexandria

The coast is about 20 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Braddock Road Metro, Alexandria, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
25
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 36.9 per 10,000 residents, more than 57% of neighborhoods
Coffee shops
5
about 7.4 per 10,000 residents, more than 74% of neighborhoods
To the coast
20 min
drive to the nearest ocean beaches

What the weather is like in Braddock Road Metro, Alexandria, month by month

Braddock Road Metro, Alexandria sees roughly 64 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 49, with lows near 30. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January49°38°30°
April72°59°48°
July92°81°73°
October74°63°53°

Flying in and out of Braddock Road Metro, Alexandria

Ronald Reagan Washington Ntl sits about 3 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 12.0 million passengers in 2025, with 128 nonstop destinations.

Nearest airport
DCA
Ronald Reagan Washington Ntl, about 3 miles
Airport size
Large hub
28th-busiest in the US, 128 nonstop destinations
Average drive
8 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Braddock Road Metro, Alexandria

Schools across Braddock Road Metro, Alexandria average a B+, better than 82% of neighborhoods.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Braddock Road Metro, Alexandria school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Braddock Road Metro, Alexandria 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 Braddock Road Metro, Alexandria against the other 5,982 neighborhoods.


Common questions about living in Braddock Road Metro, Alexandria

Is Braddock Road Metro, Alexandria a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Braddock Road Metro, Alexandria ranks 451st of 5,983 neighborhoods. It scores highest on high incomes, an educated workforce, and a stable housing market, and lowest on childcare costs and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Braddock Road Metro, Alexandria expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $792,349. The overall cost of living runs about 65% above the national average. Set against a $173,826 median income, cost of living beats 81% of neighborhoods.

Is Braddock Road Metro, Alexandria safe?

Braddock Road Metro, Alexandria is safer than 48% of neighborhoods. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $474 per resident a year.


Compare Braddock Road Metro, Alexandria with other neighborhoods


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Braddock Road Metro, Alexandria. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Braddock Road Metro, Alexandria 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.

Braddock Road Metro, Alexandria detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Braddock Road Metro, Alexandria: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Braddock Road Metro, Alexandria: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Braddock Road Metro, Alexandria: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Braddock Road Metro, Alexandria: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Braddock Road Metro, Alexandria detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.