Best PlacesBrave, PA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Brave, 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.
Brave ranks 29,767th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. A weak job market pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on tree cover.
The best neighborhoods in Brave
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.
Brave's strengths and weaknesses
Where Brave ranks high
- Tree shadeBetter than 82% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 80% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 73% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 72% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 72% of towns
Where Brave ranks low
- Local economyBetter than only 3% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 6% of towns
- Short commute34.9 minutes each way, better than only 14% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 18% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Brave
A household needs to earn about $39,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Brave home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $79,375, 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 Brave's effective rate of 1.24%, 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 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Brave
Brave'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 Brave.
Who works in Brave, and how
Work in Brave centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 91%
- Work from home 6%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Brave
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Brave.
What the weather is like in Brave, month by month
Brave sees roughly 72 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 43, with lows near 24. The comfortable stretch runs April through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 43° | 33° | 24° |
| April | 68° | 55° | 42° |
| July | 87° | 75° | 64° |
| October | 70° | 58° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Brave
The nearest airport, Morgantown Municipal/Walter L Bill Hart Field, is about 19 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Pittsburgh International, about 53 miles away.
The best schools in and around Brave
Schools across Brave average a C+, better than 40% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Waynesburg Central El SchoolB− · 43% proficient
Top middle schools
- Miller MsD+ · 27% proficient
Top high schools
- Waynesburg Central HsC · 33% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Brave school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Brave 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 Brave against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Brave
Is Brave a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Brave ranks 29,767th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on tree cover, what local pay buys, and a stable housing market, and lowest on a weak job market and cell coverage. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Brave expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $140,800. The overall cost of living runs about 21% below the national average. Set against a $79,375 median income, cost of living beats 80% of towns.
Is Brave safe?
Yes, Brave is safer than 72% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $201 per resident a year.
Compare Brave with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Brave. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Brave 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.
Brave detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Brave: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Brave: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Brave: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Brave: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Brave 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.