Best PlacesFort Gay, WV Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Fort Gay, 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.
Fort Gay ranks 47,206th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on tree cover by a wide margin, and health outcomes rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Fort Gay
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.
Fort Gay's strengths and weaknesses
Where Fort Gay ranks high
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 87% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 80% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 72% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 70% of towns
Where Fort Gay ranks low
- Health outlookBetter than only 1% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 3% of towns
- School gradeD−, better than only 4% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 4% of towns
- Short commute38.5 minutes each way, better than only 7% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Fort Gay
A household needs to earn about $15,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Fort Gay home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $50,042, 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 Fort Gay's effective rate of 0.47%, 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 2 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Fort Gay
Fort Gay 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 Fort Gay.
Who works in Fort Gay, and how
Work in Fort Gay centers on retail trade and construction. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 90%
- Work from home 4%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Fort Gay
Fort Gay has more restaurants and bars per resident than 95% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Fort Gay and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Fort Gay, month by month
Fort Gay sees roughly 61 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 Fort Gay
The nearest airport, Tri-State/Milton J Ferguson Field, is about 18 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International, about 131 miles away.
The best schools in and around Fort Gay
Schools across Fort Gay average a D−, better than 4% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Fort Gay Pre K-8D · 16% proficient
Top high schools
- Wayne High SchoolD+ · 25% proficient
- Tolsia High SchoolD− · 15% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Fort Gay school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Fort Gay 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 Fort Gay against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Fort Gay
Is Fort Gay a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Fort Gay ranks 47,206th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on tree cover, a strong job market, and low property taxes, and lowest on health outcomes and state infrastructure. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Fort Gay expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $61,011. The overall cost of living runs about 18% below the national average. Set against a $50,042 median income, cost of living beats 14% of towns.
Is Fort Gay safe?
Fort Gay is safer than 24% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $386 per resident a year.
Compare Fort Gay with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Fort Gay. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Fort Gay 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.
Fort Gay detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Fort Gay: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Fort Gay: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Fort Gay: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Fort Gay: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Fort Gay 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.