Best PlacesFive Forks, KY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Five Forks, 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.
Five Forks ranks 39,831st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. Thin health care access pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on affordable childcare.
The best neighborhoods in Five Forks
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.
Five Forks' strengths and weaknesses
Where Five Forks ranks high
- Cheap childcare$545 a month, better than 88% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 87% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 86% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 75% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 70% of towns
Where Five Forks ranks low
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 5% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than only 8% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 60 pleasant days a year, better than only 8% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 10% of towns
- School gradeD+, better than only 17% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Five Forks
A household needs to earn about $34,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Five Forks home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $55,626, 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 Five Forks' effective rate of 0.61%, 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 Five Forks
Five Forks runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Five Forks.
Who works in Five Forks, and how
Work in Five Forks centers on public administration and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 92%
- Work from home 5%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Five Forks
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Five Forks.
What the weather is like in Five Forks, month by month
Five Forks sees roughly 60 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 46, with lows near 26. The comfortable stretch runs April through June and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 46° | 35° | 26° |
| April | 72° | 57° | 44° |
| July | 89° | 77° | 67° |
| October | 74° | 59° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Five Forks
The nearest airport, Tri-State/Milton J Ferguson Field, is about 17 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International, about 126 miles away.
The best schools in and around Five Forks
Schools across Five Forks average a D+, better than 17% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Fallsburg Elementary SchoolD · 17% proficient
Top middle schools
- Louisa Middle SchoolD+ · 25% proficient
Top high schools
- Lawrence County High SchoolC− · 30% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Five Forks school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Five Forks 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 Five Forks against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Five Forks
Is Five Forks a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Five Forks ranks 39,831st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on affordable childcare, tree cover, and low crime, and lowest on thin health care access and health outcomes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Five Forks expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $133,813. The overall cost of living runs about 15% below the national average. Set against a $55,626 median income, cost of living beats 19% of towns.
Is Five Forks safe?
Yes, Five Forks is safer than 86% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $177 per resident a year.
Compare Five Forks with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Five Forks. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Five Forks 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.
Five Forks detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Five Forks: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Five Forks: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Five Forks: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Five Forks: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Five Forks 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.