Best PlacesDetrick, VA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Detrick, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Detrick ranks 15,987th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on quiet by a wide margin, and empty homes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Detrick
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.
Detrick's strengths and weaknesses
Where Detrick ranks high
- QuietBetter than 97% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 93% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 90% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 85% of towns
Where Detrick ranks low
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 12% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 15% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 16% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Detrick
A household needs to earn about $89,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Detrick home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $80,986; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Detrick's effective rate of 0.44%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Detrick
Detrick runs older 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 Detrick.
Who works in Detrick, and how
Work in Detrick centers on retail trade and manufacturing. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 82%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Detrick
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Detrick.
What the weather is like in Detrick, month by month
Detrick sees roughly 74 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 45, with lows near 27. The comfortable stretch runs April through June and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 45° | 35° | 27° |
| April | 69° | 56° | 44° |
| July | 89° | 76° | 66° |
| October | 71° | 58° | 48° |
Flying in and out of Detrick
The nearest airport, Shenandoah Valley Regional, is about 46 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Washington Dulles International, about 55 miles away.
The best schools in and around Detrick
Schools across Detrick average a B+, better than 72% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- W.w. Robinson ElementaryB+ · 51% proficient
Top middle schools
- Peter Muhlenberg MiddleB · 43% proficient
Top high schools
- Central HighB+ · 53% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Detrick school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Detrick 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 Detrick against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Detrick
Is Detrick a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Detrick ranks 15,987th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on quiet, tree cover, and health care access, and lowest on empty homes and an overheated housing market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Detrick expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $356,700. The overall cost of living runs about 10% below the national average. Set against a $80,986 median income, cost of living beats 61% of towns.
Is Detrick safe?
Detrick is safer than 52% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $292 per resident a year.
Compare Detrick with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Detrick. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Detrick 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.
Detrick detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Detrick: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Detrick: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Detrick: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Detrick: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Detrick 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.