Best PlacesHardy, VA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Hardy, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Hardy ranks 6,964th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on good schools by a wide margin, and state finances rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Hardy
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.
Hardy's strengths and weaknesses
Where Hardy ranks high
- School gradeA, better than 94% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 94% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 92% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 90% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 88% of towns
Where Hardy ranks low
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 16% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 66 pleasant days a year, better than only 18% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 20% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 37% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 39% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Hardy
A household needs to earn about $78,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Hardy home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $87,334, 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 Hardy's effective rate of 0.47%, 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 Hardy
Hardy 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 Hardy.
Who works in Hardy, and how
Work in Hardy centers on retail trade and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 81%
- Work from home 13%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Hardy
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Hardy.
What the weather is like in Hardy, month by month
Hardy sees roughly 66 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 Hardy
The nearest airport, Roanoke/Blacksburg Regional (Woodrum Field), is about 14 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Raleigh-Durham International, about 106 miles away.
The best schools in and around Hardy
Schools across Hardy average an A, better than 94% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Dudley ElementaryA · 72% proficient
- Burnt Chimney ElementaryA · 70% proficient
- Windy Gap ElementaryA · 67% proficient
Top middle schools
- William Byrd MiddleA+ · 69% proficient
- Benjamin Franklin MiddleA · 67% proficient
- Staunton River MiddleB+ · 52% proficient
Top high schools
- William Byrd HighA · 78% proficient
- Franklin County HighA · 76% proficient
- Staunton River HighB+ · 51% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Hardy school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Hardy 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 Hardy against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Hardy
Is Hardy a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Hardy ranks 6,964th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on good schools, low disaster risk, and civic engagement, and lowest on state finances and the weather. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Hardy expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $312,425. The overall cost of living runs about 12% below the national average. Set against a $87,334 median income, cost of living beats 78% of towns.
Is Hardy safe?
Yes, Hardy is safer than 65% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $265 per resident a year.
Compare Hardy with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Hardy. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Hardy 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.
Hardy detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Hardy: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Hardy: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Hardy: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Hardy: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Hardy 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.