Best PlacesCranberry, NC Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Cranberry, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Cranberry ranks 37,246th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on heat safety by a wide margin, and cell coverage ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Cranberry
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.
Cranberry's strengths and weaknesses
Where Cranberry ranks high
- Heat safetyBetter than 96% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 94% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than 91% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 86% of towns
Where Cranberry ranks low
- Cell coverageBetter than only 5% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 12% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 13% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 13% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Cranberry
A household needs to earn about $41,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Cranberry home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $51,459, 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 Cranberry's effective rate of 0.31%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Cranberry
Cranberry 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 Cranberry.
Who works in Cranberry, and how
Work in Cranberry centers on retail trade and manufacturing. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 73%
- Work from home 9%
- Transit, walk, or bike 18%
Life in Cranberry
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Cranberry.
What the weather is like in Cranberry, month by month
Cranberry sees roughly 89 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 degrees. January highs sit near 43, with lows near 24. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 43° | 33° | 24° |
| April | 66° | 52° | 40° |
| July | 82° | 70° | 60° |
| October | 67° | 54° | 42° |
Flying in and out of Cranberry
The nearest airport, Tri-Cities, is about 34 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Charlotte/Douglas International, about 86 miles away.
The best schools in and around Cranberry
Schools across Cranberry average a B+, better than 78% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Freedom Trail ElementaryB+ · 52% proficient
Top middle schools
- Cranberry MiddleA · 65% proficient
Top high schools
- Avery County HighB+ · 55% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Cranberry school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Cranberry 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 Cranberry against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Cranberry
Is Cranberry a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Cranberry ranks 37,246th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on heat safety, tree cover, and low property taxes, and lowest on cell coverage and empty homes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Cranberry expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $166,705. The overall cost of living runs about 8% below the national average. Set against a $51,459 median income, cost of living beats 13% of towns.
Is Cranberry safe?
Cranberry is safer than 15% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $545 per resident a year.
Compare Cranberry with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Cranberry. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Cranberry 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.
Cranberry detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Cranberry: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Cranberry: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Cranberry: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Cranberry: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Cranberry 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.