Best PlacesDurham, NC Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Durham, 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.
Durham ranks 79th of 445 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It does not top any single list, but it lands above the national middle on tree cover and state finances. The weaker spots are cell coverage, distance from a big city, and the weather.
The best neighborhoods in Durham
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 Durham
The parts of Durham, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the city.
Woodcroft, Sayward Drive & Hope Valley
More adults hold degrees, local pay stretches further, and incomes run higher.
North Garrett Road & Tuscaloosa-Lakewood
Streets are more walkable, though fewer households have young kids.
Research Triangle Park, Northwest Raleigh & Triangle Development
Heat risk is higher and biking is worse.
Old West Durham
Scores close to Research Triangle Park, Northwest Raleigh & Triangle Development, except that tree cover is thicker here.
Hillside Park
Schools score higher and crime runs lower.
Downtown Durham, Forest Hills & Old North Durham
Transit reaches more jobs, though more homes sit empty.
Northgate Park, Trinity Park & Walltown
Prices have run up more.
Northeast Durham
Health care is harder to reach and health outcomes score lower.
East Durham, Wellons Village & Y.E. Smith
Homes cost less, though fewer residents vote.
Durham shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 6% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Durham's strengths and weaknesses
Durham ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Tree cover is the standout, in the top 2% of cities. State finances and civic engagement follow.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Cell coverage, distance from a big city, and the weather hold the score down. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Durham ranks high
- Tree shadeBetter than 98% of cities
- State fiscal healthBetter than 93% of cities
- Voter turnoutBetter than 91% of cities
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 89% of cities
- Educational attainmentBetter than 88% of cities
Where Durham ranks low
- Cell coverageBetter than only 12% of cities
- Big-city accessBetter than only 29% of cities
- Nice weatherabout 78 pleasant days a year, better than only 31% of cities
- WalkabilityBetter than only 33% of cities
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 33% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Durham
A household needs to earn about $108,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Durham home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $93,441, 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 Durham's effective rate of 0.80%, 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 Durham
Durham runs younger 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 Durham.
Who works in Durham, and how
Work in Durham centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 70%
- Work from home 22%
- Transit, walk, or bike 8%
Life in Durham
Durham has more restaurants and bars per resident than 78% of cities and more parkland per resident than 86% of cities. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Durham and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Durham, month by month
Durham sees roughly 78 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 94 degrees. January highs sit near 56, with lows near 31. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 56° | 43° | 31° |
| April | 77° | 62° | 48° |
| July | 94° | 81° | 71° |
| October | 77° | 63° | 51° |
Flying in and out of Durham
Raleigh-Durham International sits about 10 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 7.7 million passengers in 2025, with 128 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Durham
Schools across Durham average a B+, better than 86% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Sycamore Creek ElementaryA+ · 75% proficient
- Pearsontown ElementaryA · 71% proficient
- Hillsborough ElementaryA · 69% proficient
Top middle schools
- Mills Park MiddleA+ · 89% proficient
- Smith MiddleA+ · 72% proficient
- Phillips MiddleA+ · 72% proficient
Top high schools
- Middle College Hs @ DtccA+ · 80% proficient
- City Of Medicine AcademyA · 78% proficient
- East Chapel Hill HighA · 78% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Durham school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Durham 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 Durham against the other 444 cities.
Who Durham suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 76% of cities, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 22% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Durham
Is Durham a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Durham ranks 79th of 445 cities. It scores highest on tree cover, state finances, and civic engagement, and lowest on cell coverage and distance from a big city. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Durham expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $415,084. The overall cost of living runs about 8% below the national average. Set against a $93,441 median income, cost of living beats 76% of cities.
Is Durham safe?
Durham is safer than 34% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $521 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Durham?
July highs average about 94 degrees, and January highs near 56 with lows near 31. That works out to about 78 pleasant days a year, more than 31% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Durham?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Woodcroft, Sayward Drive & Hope Valley, North Garrett Road & Tuscaloosa-Lakewood, and Research Triangle Park, Northwest Raleigh & Triangle Development. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Durham good for families?
Schools beat 86% of cities, crime safety beats 34%, and childcare runs $1,191 a month.
Is Durham good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 76% of cities, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 87% of cities. About 22% of workers already work from home.
Compare Durham with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Durham. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Durham 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.
Durham detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Durham: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Durham: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Durham: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Durham: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Durham 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.