Best PlacesGlenvar, VA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Glenvar, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Glenvar ranks 3,616th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on good schools by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Glenvar
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.
Glenvar's strengths and weaknesses
Where Glenvar ranks high
- School gradeA, better than 96% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 95% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
- Household income$115,150 median, better than 92% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 92% of towns
Where Glenvar ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 3% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 15% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 16% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 68 pleasant days a year, better than only 21% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Glenvar
A household needs to earn about $82,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Glenvar home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $115,150, 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 Glenvar's effective rate of 0.95%, 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 Glenvar
Glenvar 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 Glenvar.
Who works in Glenvar, and how
Work in Glenvar centers on health care & social and hospitality & food. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 89%
- Work from home 9%
- Transit, walk, or bike 1%
Life in Glenvar
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Glenvar.
What the weather is like in Glenvar, month by month
Glenvar sees roughly 68 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 91 degrees. January highs sit near 49, with lows near 28. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 49° | 38° | 28° |
| April | 74° | 59° | 46° |
| July | 91° | 79° | 68° |
| October | 74° | 61° | 49° |
Flying in and out of Glenvar
The nearest airport, Roanoke/Blacksburg Regional (Woodrum Field), is about 10 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Raleigh-Durham International, about 123 miles away.
The best schools in and around Glenvar
Schools across Glenvar average an A, better than 96% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Mason's Cove ElementaryA · 70% proficient
- West Salem ElementaryA · 68% proficient
- Glenvar ElementaryB+ · 52% proficient
Top middle schools
- Glenvar MiddleA+ · 72% proficient
- Andrew Lewis MiddleA · 64% proficient
Top high schools
- Glenvar HighA+ · 85% proficient
- Salem HighA · 76% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Glenvar school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Glenvar 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 Glenvar against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Glenvar
Is Glenvar a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Glenvar ranks 3,616th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on good schools, what local pay buys, and tree cover, and lowest on noise 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 Glenvar expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $305,900. The overall cost of living runs about 13% below the national average. Set against a $115,150 median income, cost of living beats 95% of towns.
Is Glenvar safe?
Yes, Glenvar is safer than 79% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $217 per resident a year.
Compare Glenvar with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Glenvar. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Glenvar 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.
Glenvar detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Glenvar: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Glenvar: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Glenvar: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Glenvar: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Glenvar 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.