Best PlacesClear Brook, VA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Clear Brook, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Clear Brook ranks 3,709th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low crime by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Clear Brook
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.
Clear Brook's strengths and weaknesses
Where Clear Brook ranks high
- Crime safetyBetter than 97% of towns
- Household income$118,366 median, better than 93% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 92% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 91% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 90% of towns
Where Clear Brook ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 6% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 16% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 32% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 39% of towns
- Short commute28.8 minutes each way, better than only 40% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Clear Brook
A household needs to earn about $113,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Clear Brook home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $118,366, 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 Clear Brook's effective rate of 0.52%, 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 Clear Brook
Clear Brook runs younger than the country, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Clear Brook.
Who works in Clear Brook, and how
Work in Clear Brook centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 91%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 1%
Life in Clear Brook
Clear Brook has more restaurants and bars per resident than 99% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Clear Brook and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Clear Brook, month by month
Clear Brook sees roughly 84 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 41, with lows near 26. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 41° | 33° | 26° |
| April | 65° | 54° | 43° |
| July | 86° | 75° | 66° |
| October | 67° | 56° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Clear Brook
The nearest airport, Hagerstown Regional/Richard A Henson Field, is about 36 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Washington Dulles International, about 41 miles away.
The best schools in and around Clear Brook
Schools across Clear Brook average a B+, better than 74% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Apple Pie Ridge ElementaryB+ · 52% proficient
- D.g. Cooley ElementaryB · 49% proficient
- Stonewall ElementaryB− · 42% proficient
Top middle schools
- Johnson-williams MiddleA− · 57% proficient
- James Wood MiddleB− · 42% proficient
Top high schools
- Clarke County HighA · 73% proficient
- James Wood HighA · 68% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Clear Brook school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Clear Brook 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 Clear Brook against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Clear Brook
Is Clear Brook a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Clear Brook ranks 3,709th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low crime, high incomes, and what local pay buys, and lowest on noise and state finances. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Clear Brook expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $451,636. The overall cost of living runs about 4% below the national average. Set against a $118,366 median income, cost of living beats 92% of towns.
Is Clear Brook safe?
Yes, Clear Brook is safer than 97% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $145 per resident a year.
Compare Clear Brook with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Clear Brook. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Clear Brook 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.
Clear Brook detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Clear Brook: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Clear Brook: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Clear Brook: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Clear Brook: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Clear Brook 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.