Best PlacesGreenville, NC Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Greenville metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by COGpio, CC BY-SA 4.0, via commons
Greenville ranks 298th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on low incomes and disaster risk. It does better on state finances, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Greenville metro
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.
The best areas in Greenville
The towns and districts of the Greenville metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Grimesland
It is quieter, crime runs lower, and prices have run up less.
Winterville
More households have young kids and more adults hold degrees.
Downtown Greenville
Local pay stretches further and incomes run higher.
Ayden & Grifton
Tree cover is thinner and biking is worse.
Farmville
Heat risk is higher.
Greenville shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 2% of the country and others in the top 7%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Greenville's strengths and weaknesses
Greenville ranks near the bottom because several of the basics fall short at once. State finances, cheap car insurance, and clean air carry most of that.
The weak spots are broad rather than narrow: low incomes, disaster risk, and an overheated housing market all drag on the score. Those are area averages, and the map below shows which parts run well above them.
Where Greenville ranks high
- State fiscal healthBetter than 91% of metro areas
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 83% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than 82% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than 79% of metro areas
- QuietBetter than 77% of metro areas
Where Greenville ranks low
- Household income$67,058 median, better than only 15% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 15% of metro areas
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 16% of metro areas
- Crime safetyBetter than only 16% of metro areas
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 17% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Greenville
A household needs to earn about $57,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Greenville home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $67,058, 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 Greenville's effective rate of 0.82%, 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 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Greenville
Greenville runs younger 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 Greenville.
Who works in Greenville, and how
Work in Greenville centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 83%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Greenville
Greenville has less parkland per resident than most metro areas and less late-night activity than most metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Greenville and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Greenville growing, and who is moving in?
Greenville has grown about 3% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Raleigh, NC.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Greenville go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Greenville, month by month
Greenville sees roughly 77 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 91 degrees. January highs sit near 54, with lows near 35. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 54° | 43° | 35° |
| April | 75° | 62° | 52° |
| July | 91° | 81° | 72° |
| October | 75° | 64° | 54° |
Flying in and out of Greenville
The nearest airport, Pitt-Greenville, is about 3 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 Greenville
Schools across Greenville average a B−, better than 64% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- ChicodA · 69% proficient
- Ridgewood ElementaryA− · 57% proficient
- W H Robinson ElementaryB+ · 54% proficient
Top middle schools
- Hope MiddleA+ · 75% proficient
- A G Cox MiddleB+ · 51% proficient
- Farmville MiddleB− · 40% proficient
Top high schools
- Innovation Early College HighA+ · 90% proficient
- Edgecombe Early College HighA · 77% proficient
- D H Conley HighA− · 65% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Greenville school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Greenville 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 Greenville against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Greenville suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 12% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Greenville
Is Greenville a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Greenville ranks 298th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on state finances, cheap car insurance, and clean air, and lowest on low incomes and disaster risk. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Greenville expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $217,864. The overall cost of living runs about 13% below the national average. Set against a $67,058 median income, cost of living beats 17% of metro areas.
Is Greenville safe?
Greenville is safer than 16% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $502 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Greenville?
July highs average about 91 degrees, and January highs near 54 with lows near 35. That works out to about 77 pleasant days a year, more than 36% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Greenville?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Grimesland, Winterville, and Downtown Greenville. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Greenville good for families?
Schools beat 64% of metro areas, crime safety beats 16%, and childcare runs $878 a month.
Is Greenville good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 17% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 79% of metro areas. About 12% of workers already work from home.
Compare Greenville with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Greenville. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Greenville 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.
Greenville detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Greenville: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Greenville: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Greenville: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Greenville: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Greenville 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.