Best PlacesGraves, SC Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Graves, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Graves ranks 48,592nd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. Disaster risk pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on low property taxes.
The best neighborhoods in Graves
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.
Graves' strengths and weaknesses
Where Graves ranks high
- Low property taxBetter than 83% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 107 pleasant days a year, better than 72% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 71% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 69% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 64% of towns
Where Graves ranks low
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 2% of towns
- School gradeD, better than only 8% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 9% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Graves
A household needs to earn about $43,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Graves home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $65,561, 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 Graves' effective rate of 0.45%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Graves
Graves 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 Graves.
Who works in Graves, and how
Work in Graves centers on hospitality & food and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 92%
- Work from home 6%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Graves
The coast is about 24 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Graves, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Graves, month by month
Graves sees roughly 107 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 58, with lows near 38. The comfortable stretch runs March through May and September through November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 58° | 47° | 38° |
| April | 75° | 63° | 53° |
| July | 89° | 79° | 72° |
| October | 76° | 66° | 57° |
Flying in and out of Graves
The nearest airport, Myrtle Beach International, is about 33 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Charleston AFB/International, about 51 miles away.
The best schools in and around Graves
Schools across Graves average a D, better than 8% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Mcdonald ElementaryD− · 15% proficient
- Sampit ElementaryD− · 11% proficient
Top middle schools
- Georgetown MiddleD · 21% proficient
- Rosemary MiddleF · 10% proficient
Top high schools
- Georgetown HighB · 47% proficient
- Andrews HighD · 20% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Graves school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Graves 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 Graves against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Graves
Is Graves a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Graves ranks 48,592nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low property taxes, the weather, and state infrastructure, and lowest on disaster risk and crime. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Graves expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $171,300. The overall cost of living runs about 12% below the national average. Set against a $65,561 median income, cost of living beats 33% of towns.
Is Graves safe?
Graves is safer than 2% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $1,106 per resident a year.
Compare Graves with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Graves. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Graves 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.
Graves detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Graves: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Graves: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Graves: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Graves: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Graves 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.