Best PlacesCarters Mills, VA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Carters Mills, 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.
Carters Mills ranks 41,299th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cheap car insurance by a wide margin, and a weak job market ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Carters Mills
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.
Carters Mills' strengths and weaknesses
Where Carters Mills ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 90% of towns
- School gradeA, better than 90% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 90% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 78% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 77% of towns
Where Carters Mills ranks low
- Local economyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Short commute38.8 minutes each way, better than only 7% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 7% of towns
- Household income$48,053 median, better than only 10% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 15% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Carters Mills
A household needs to earn about $42,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Carters Mills home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $48,053, 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 Carters Mills' effective rate of 0.49%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Carters Mills
Carters Mills runs older than the country, 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 Carters Mills.
Who works in Carters Mills, and how
Work in Carters Mills centers on transportation & warehousing and admin & support services. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 76%
- Work from home 21%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Carters Mills
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Carters Mills.
What the weather is like in Carters Mills, month by month
Carters Mills sees roughly 89 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 48, with lows near 31. The comfortable stretch runs April through June and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 48° | 38° | 31° |
| April | 71° | 59° | 48° |
| July | 87° | 77° | 68° |
| October | 72° | 60° | 51° |
Flying in and out of Carters Mills
The nearest airport, Piedmont Triad International, is about 45 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Charlotte/Douglas International, about 98 miles away.
The best schools in and around Carters Mills
Schools across Carters Mills average an A, better than 90% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Blue Ridge ElementaryA− · 62% proficient
Top high schools
- Patrick County HighA · 68% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Carters Mills school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Carters Mills 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 Carters Mills against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Carters Mills
Is Carters Mills a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Carters Mills ranks 41,299th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, good schools, and low disaster risk, and lowest on a weak job market and long commutes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Carters Mills expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $168,656. The overall cost of living runs about 12% below the national average. Set against a $48,053 median income, cost of living beats 7% of towns.
Is Carters Mills safe?
Carters Mills is safer than 24% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $405 per resident a year.
Compare Carters Mills with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Carters Mills. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Carters Mills 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.
Carters Mills detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Carters Mills: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Carters Mills: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Carters Mills: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Carters Mills: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Carters Mills 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.