Best PlacesHare Valley, VA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Hare Valley, 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.
Hare Valley ranks 43,136th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. Crime pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on transit.
The best neighborhoods in Hare Valley
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.
Hare Valley's strengths and weaknesses
Where Hare Valley ranks high
- TransitBetter than 89% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 89% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 77% of towns
- School gradeB, better than 71% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 69% of towns
Where Hare Valley ranks low
- Crime safetyBetter than only 3% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 4% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 13% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 13% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Hare Valley
A household needs to earn about $49,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Hare Valley home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $61,483, 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 Hare Valley's effective rate of 0.60%, 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 Hare Valley
Hare Valley 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 Hare Valley.
Who works in Hare Valley, and how
Work in Hare Valley centers on agriculture & forestry and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 92%
- Work from home 2%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Hare Valley
The coast is about 12 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Hare Valley, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Hare Valley, month by month
Hare Valley sees roughly 71 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 47, with lows near 30. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 47° | 39° | 30° |
| April | 67° | 56° | 46° |
| July | 87° | 78° | 70° |
| October | 72° | 61° | 51° |
Flying in and out of Hare Valley
The nearest airport, Newport News/Williamsburg International, is about 42 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Richmond International, about 79 miles away.
The best schools in and around Hare Valley
Schools across Hare Valley average a B, better than 71% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Occohannock ElementaryC+ · 38% proficient
Top middle schools
- Northampton MiddleB · 47% proficient
Top high schools
- Northampton HighA− · 62% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Hare Valley school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Hare Valley 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 Hare Valley against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Hare Valley
Is Hare Valley a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Hare Valley ranks 43,136th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on transit, cheap car insurance, and big-city access, and lowest on crime and disaster risk. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Hare Valley expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $193,565. The overall cost of living runs about 13% below the national average. Set against a $61,483 median income, cost of living beats 34% of towns.
Is Hare Valley safe?
Hare Valley is safer than 3% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $802 per resident a year.
Compare Hare Valley with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Hare Valley. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Hare Valley 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.
Hare Valley detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Hare Valley: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Hare Valley: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Hare Valley: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Hare Valley: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Hare Valley 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.