Best PlacesGrady, VA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Grady, 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.
Grady ranks 35,270th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on good schools by a wide margin, and the cost of living against local pay is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Grady
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.
Grady's strengths and weaknesses
Where Grady ranks high
- School gradeA−, better than 91% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 83% of towns
- QuietBetter than 83% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 78% of towns
- Cheap childcare$605 a month, better than 78% of towns
Where Grady ranks low
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 9% of towns
- Household income$46,746 median, better than only 9% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 9% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 9% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 13% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Grady
A household needs to earn about $39,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Grady home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $46,746, 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 Grady's effective rate of 0.68%, 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 Grady
Grady runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Grady.
Who works in Grady, and how
Work in Grady centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 93%
- Work from home 4%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Grady
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Grady.
What the weather is like in Grady, month by month
Grady sees roughly 73 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 49, with lows near 25. The comfortable stretch runs April through June and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 49° | 36° | 25° |
| April | 73° | 57° | 42° |
| July | 89° | 76° | 65° |
| October | 73° | 58° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Grady
The nearest airport, Roanoke/Blacksburg Regional (Woodrum Field), is about 39 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Raleigh-Durham International, about 82 miles away.
The best schools in and around Grady
Schools across Grady average an A−, better than 91% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Snow Creek ElementaryA+ · 75% proficient
- Union Hall ElementaryA− · 62% proficient
- Axton ElementaryC+ · 38% proficient
Top middle schools
- Benjamin Franklin MiddleA · 67% proficient
- Chatham MiddleA · 63% proficient
- Laurel Park MiddleA · 59% proficient
Top high schools
- Chatham HighA · 77% proficient
- Franklin County HighA · 76% proficient
- Magna Vista HighA− · 63% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Grady school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Grady 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 Grady against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Grady
Is Grady a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Grady ranks 35,270th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on good schools, cheap car insurance, and quiet, and lowest on the cost of living against local pay and low incomes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Grady expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $151,326. The overall cost of living runs about 14% below the national average. Set against a $46,746 median income, cost of living beats 9% of towns.
Is Grady safe?
Grady is safer than 37% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $346 per resident a year.
Compare Grady with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Grady. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Grady 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.
Grady detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Grady: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Grady: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Grady: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Grady: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Grady 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.