Best PlacesChamplain, VA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Champlain, 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.
Champlain ranks 47,690th 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 Champlain
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.
Champlain's strengths and weaknesses
Where Champlain ranks high
- Big-city accessBetter than 89% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 85% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 75% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 74% of towns
- QuietBetter than 70% of towns
Where Champlain ranks low
- Short commute50.2 minutes each way, better than only 1% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than only 6% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 7% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Champlain
A household needs to earn about $59,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Champlain home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $56,536; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Champlain'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 Champlain
Champlain 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 Champlain.
Who works in Champlain, and how
Work in Champlain centers on retail trade and manufacturing. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 86%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Champlain
The coast is about 26 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Champlain, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Champlain, month by month
Champlain 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 Champlain
Richmond International sits about 40 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 Champlain
Schools across Champlain average a C+, better than 47% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Tappahannock ElementaryB− · 43% 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
- Essex HighB− · 42% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Champlain school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Champlain 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 Champlain against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Champlain
Is Champlain a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Champlain ranks 47,690th 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 Champlain expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $233,122. The overall cost of living runs about 8% below the national average. Set against a $56,536 median income, cost of living beats 15% of towns.
Is Champlain safe?
Champlain is safer than 12% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $525 per resident a year.
Compare Champlain with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Champlain. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Champlain 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.
Champlain detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Champlain: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Champlain: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Champlain: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Champlain: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Champlain 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.