Best PlacesCaret, VA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Caret, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Caret ranks 47,220th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. Long commutes pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on big-city access.
The best neighborhoods in Caret
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.
Caret's strengths and weaknesses
Where Caret ranks high
- Big-city accessBetter than 88% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 85% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 74% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 67% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 66% of towns
Where Caret ranks low
- Short commute48.0 minutes each way, better than only 1% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 2% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than only 6% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 7% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Caret
A household needs to earn about $54,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Caret home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $59,925, 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 Caret's effective rate of 0.59%, 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 6 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Caret
Caret runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Caret.
Who works in Caret, and how
Work in Caret centers on manufacturing and education. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 89%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Caret
The coast is about 24 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Caret, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Caret, month by month
Caret sees roughly 71 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 48, with lows near 30. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 48° | 38° | 30° |
| April | 71° | 58° | 47° |
| July | 90° | 79° | 70° |
| October | 72° | 61° | 51° |
Flying in and out of Caret
Richmond International sits about 39 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 2.5 million passengers in 2025, with 72 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Caret
Schools across Caret average a C+, better than 47% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Tappahannock ElementaryB− · 43% proficient
- Richmond County ElementaryB− · 42% proficient
- Bowling Green ElementaryC− · 30% proficient
Top middle schools
- Caroline MiddleB+ · 51% proficient
- James H. Cary IntermediateC− · 27% proficient
Top high schools
- Caroline HighA− · 60% proficient
- Rappahannock HighB+ · 57% proficient
- Essex HighB− · 42% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Caret school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Caret 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 Caret against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Caret
Is Caret a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Caret ranks 47,220th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on big-city access, cheap car insurance, and clean air, and lowest on long commutes and a weak job market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Caret expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $210,945. The overall cost of living runs about 8% below the national average. Set against a $59,925 median income, cost of living beats 21% of towns.
Is Caret safe?
Caret is safer than 11% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $531 per resident a year.
Compare Caret with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Caret. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Caret 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.
Caret detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Caret: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Caret: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Caret: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Caret: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Caret 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.