Best PlacesButner, NC Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Butner, 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.
Butner ranks 22,807th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on state finances by a wide margin, and education levels rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Butner
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.
Butner's strengths and weaknesses
Where Butner ranks high
- State fiscal healthBetter than 91% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 77% of towns
- School gradeB−, better than 71% of towns
- BikingBetter than 70% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 70% of towns
Where Butner ranks low
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 3% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 14% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 16% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 21% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 23% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Butner
A household needs to earn about $66,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Butner home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $80,912, 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 Butner's effective rate of 0.73%, 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 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Butner
Butner's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Butner.
Who works in Butner, and how
Work in Butner centers on health care & social and construction. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 82%
- Work from home 17%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Butner
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Butner.
What the weather is like in Butner, month by month
Butner sees roughly 76 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 48, with lows near 30. The comfortable stretch runs April through June and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 48° | 38° | 30° |
| April | 70° | 58° | 47° |
| July | 87° | 76° | 67° |
| October | 71° | 58° | 48° |
Flying in and out of Butner
Raleigh-Durham International sits about 18 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 7.7 million passengers in 2025, with 128 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Butner
Schools across Butner average a B−, better than 71% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Mangum ElementaryA− · 60% proficient
- Little River K-8 SchoolB− · 42% proficient
- Butner-stem ElementaryC− · 27% proficient
Top middle schools
- Butner-stem MiddleC+ · 37% proficient
- Lucas MiddleD+ · 27% proficient
Top high schools
- Granville Early College HighA+ · 87% proficient
- City Of Medicine AcademyA · 78% proficient
- The School For Creative StudiesC+ · 40% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Butner school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Butner 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 Butner against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Butner
Is Butner a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Butner ranks 22,807th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on state finances, cheap car insurance, and good schools, and lowest on education levels and thin health care access. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Butner expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $255,021. The overall cost of living runs about 13% below the national average. Set against a $80,912 median income, cost of living beats 60% of towns.
Is Butner safe?
Butner is safer than 28% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $422 per resident a year.
Compare Butner with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Butner. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Butner 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.
Butner detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Butner: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Butner: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Butner: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Butner: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Butner 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.