Best PlacesCharleston, WV Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Charleston metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Tim Kiser ( w:User:Malepheasant ), CC BY-SA 2.5, via commons
Charleston ranks 331st of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on health outcomes and the weather. It does better on tree cover, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Charleston metro
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.
The best areas in Charleston
The towns and districts of the Charleston metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Downtown Charleston
More adults hold degrees, local pay stretches further, and commutes are shorter.
Dunbar & Upper Falls
Fewer homes sit empty, though fewer households have young kids.
St. Albans, Cross Lanes & Nitro
Tree cover is thinner.
Madison & Danville
It is quieter and prices have run up less.
Sissonville
Incomes run lower and streets are more car-dependent.
Elkview, Clendenin & Pinch
Crime runs lower, though disaster risk is higher.
Belle
Homes cost less, though fewer residents vote.
Charleston shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 2% of the country and others in the top 3%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Charleston's strengths and weaknesses
Charleston ranks near the bottom because several of the basics fall short at once. Tree cover, a stable housing market, and clean air carry most of that.
The weak spots are broad rather than narrow: health outcomes, the weather, and empty homes all drag on the score. Those are area averages, and the map below shows which parts run well above them.
Where Charleston ranks high
- Tree shadeBetter than 93% of metro areas
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 91% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than 74% of metro areas
- Low property taxBetter than 74% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$755 a month, better than 69% of metro areas
Where Charleston ranks low
- Health outlookBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- Nice weatherabout 60 pleasant days a year, better than only 3% of metro areas
- Low vacancyBetter than only 3% of metro areas
- State infrastructureBetter than only 3% of metro areas
- BikingBetter than only 4% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Charleston
A household needs to earn about $40,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Charleston home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $65,747, 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 Charleston's effective rate of 0.63%, 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 5 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Charleston
Charleston 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 Charleston.
Who works in Charleston, and how
Work in Charleston centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 83%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 8%
Life in Charleston
Charleston has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas and more late-night spots per resident than 78% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Charleston and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Charleston growing, and who is moving in?
Charleston has lost about 9% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Huntington, WV.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Charleston go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Charleston, month by month
Charleston sees roughly 60 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 46, with lows near 26. The comfortable stretch runs April through June and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 46° | 35° | 26° |
| April | 72° | 57° | 43° |
| July | 89° | 76° | 66° |
| October | 73° | 58° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Charleston
The nearest airport, West Virginia International Yeager, is about 3 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is John Glenn Columbus International, about 132 miles away.
The best schools in and around Charleston
Schools across Charleston average a C−, better than 15% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Kenna Elementary SchoolA · 68% proficient
- Holz Elementary SchoolA · 65% proficient
- Weberwood Elementary SchoolB · 48% proficient
Top middle schools
- John Adams Middle SchoolB+ · 49% proficient
- Horace Mann Middle SchoolC+ · 36% proficient
- Sissonville Middle SchoolC · 35% proficient
Top high schools
- George Washington High SchoolA− · 61% proficient
- Herbert Hoover High SchoolB− · 43% proficient
- Saint Albans High SchoolC+ · 40% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Charleston school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Charleston 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 Charleston against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Charleston suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 10% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Charleston
Is Charleston a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Charleston ranks 331st of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on tree cover, a stable housing market, and clean air, and lowest on health outcomes and the weather. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Charleston expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $155,609. The overall cost of living runs about 22% below the national average. Set against a $65,747 median income, cost of living beats 42% of metro areas.
Is Charleston safe?
Charleston is safer than 33% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $361 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Charleston?
July highs average about 89 degrees, and January highs near 46 with lows near 26. That works out to about 60 pleasant days a year, more than 3% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Charleston?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Downtown Charleston, Dunbar & Upper Falls, and St. Albans, Cross Lanes & Nitro. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Charleston good for families?
Schools beat 15% of metro areas, crime safety beats 33%, and childcare runs $755 a month.
Is Charleston good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 42% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 66% of metro areas. About 10% of workers already work from home.
Compare Charleston with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Charleston. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Charleston 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.
Charleston detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Charleston: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Charleston: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Charleston: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Charleston: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Charleston 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.