Best PlacesHarcum, VA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Harcum, 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.
Harcum ranks 11,223rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. Long commutes pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on good schools.
The best neighborhoods in Harcum
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.
Harcum's strengths and weaknesses
Where Harcum ranks high
- School gradeA, better than 90% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 88% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 86% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 85% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 82% of towns
Where Harcum ranks low
- Short commute37.2 minutes each way, better than only 9% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 12% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 12% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 16% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Harcum
A household needs to earn about $102,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Harcum home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $93,016; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Harcum's effective rate of 0.59%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Harcum
Harcum's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Harcum.
Who works in Harcum, and how
Work in Harcum centers on construction and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 82%
- Work from home 17%
- Transit, walk, or bike 1%
Life in Harcum
The coast is about 20 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Harcum, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Harcum, month by month
Harcum sees roughly 72 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 49, with lows near 29. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 49° | 39° | 29° |
| April | 71° | 58° | 47° |
| July | 89° | 79° | 70° |
| October | 72° | 61° | 51° |
Flying in and out of Harcum
The nearest airport, Newport News/Williamsburg International, is about 26 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Richmond International, about 44 miles away.
The best schools in and around Harcum
Schools across Harcum average an A, better than 90% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Petsworth ElementaryB+ · 55% proficient
Top middle schools
- Peasley MiddleA · 61% proficient
Top high schools
- Gloucester HighA · 69% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Harcum school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Harcum 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 Harcum against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Harcum
Is Harcum a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Harcum ranks 11,223rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on good schools, cheap car insurance, and health care access, and lowest on long commutes and cell coverage. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Harcum expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $402,284. The overall cost of living runs about 11% below the national average. Set against a $93,016 median income, cost of living beats 85% of towns.
Is Harcum safe?
Yes, Harcum is safer than 69% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $246 per resident a year.
Compare Harcum with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Harcum. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Harcum 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.
Harcum detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Harcum: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Harcum: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Harcum: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Harcum: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Harcum 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.