Best PlacesClam, VA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Clam, 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.
Clam ranks 47,075th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. Disaster risk pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on quiet.
The best neighborhoods in Clam
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.
Clam's strengths and weaknesses
Where Clam ranks high
- QuietBetter than 90% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 86% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 78% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 78% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 72% of towns
Where Clam ranks low
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 6% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 6% of towns
- Household income$43,849 median, better than only 6% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 12% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Clam
A household needs to earn about $53,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Clam home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $43,849, 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 Clam's effective rate of 0.49%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Clam
Clam's age mix sits close to the national median, 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 Clam.
Who works in Clam, and how
Work in Clam centers on other services and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 94%
- Work from home 3%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Clam
The coast is about 31 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Clam, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Clam, month by month
Clam sees roughly 70 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 47, 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 | 47° | 39° | 30° |
| April | 67° | 56° | 46° |
| July | 87° | 78° | 70° |
| October | 72° | 61° | 51° |
Flying in and out of Clam
The nearest airport, Salisbury-Ocean City Wicomico Regional, is about 37 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Richmond International, about 92 miles away.
The best schools in and around Clam
Schools across Clam average a B−, better than 62% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Metompkin ElementaryC · 30% proficient
Top middle schools
- Arcadia MiddleB · 43% proficient
Top high schools
- Arcadia HighB+ · 58% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Clam school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Clam 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 Clam against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Clam
Is Clam a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Clam ranks 47,075th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on quiet, cheap car insurance, and big-city access, and lowest on disaster risk and the cost of living against local pay. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Clam expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $210,600. The overall cost of living runs about 14% below the national average. Set against a $43,849 median income, cost of living beats 6% of towns.
Is Clam safe?
Clam is safer than 10% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $560 per resident a year.
Compare Clam with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Clam. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Clam 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.
Clam detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Clam: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Clam: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Clam: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Clam: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Clam 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.