Best PlacesChance, VA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Chance, 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.
Chance ranks 47,899th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cell coverage by a wide margin, and long commutes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Chance
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.
Chance's strengths and weaknesses
Where Chance ranks high
- Cell coverageBetter than 91% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 89% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 85% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 75% of towns
- QuietBetter than 72% of towns
Where Chance ranks low
- Short commute52.0 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 6% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Chance
A household needs to earn about $62,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Chance home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $54,844, so buying stretches a typical household.
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 Chance's effective rate of 0.59%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Chance
Chance 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 Chance.
Who works in Chance, and how
Work in Chance centers on retail trade and public administration. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 13%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Chance
The coast is about 28 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Chance, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Chance, month by month
Chance sees roughly 72 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 Chance
Richmond International sits about 42 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 Chance
Schools across Chance average a C+, better than 47% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Tappahannock ElementaryB− · 43% proficient
Top middle schools
- James H. Cary IntermediateC− · 27% proficient
Top high schools
- Essex HighB− · 42% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Chance school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Chance 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 Chance against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Chance
Is Chance a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Chance ranks 47,899th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cell coverage, big-city access, and cheap car insurance, 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 Chance expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $244,200. The overall cost of living runs about 7% below the national average. Set against a $54,844 median income, cost of living beats 13% of towns.
Is Chance safe?
Chance is safer than 12% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $523 per resident a year.
Compare Chance with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Chance. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Chance 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.
Chance detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Chance: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Chance: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Chance: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Chance: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Chance 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.