Best PlacesHarrisonburg, VA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Harrisonburg metro, 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.
Photo by Alma mater, CC BY-SA 3.0, via wiki
Harrisonburg ranks 74th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It does not top any single list, but it lands above the national middle on cheap car insurance and low crime. The weaker spots are state finances, walkability, and biking.
The best neighborhoods in the Harrisonburg 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 Harrisonburg
The towns and districts of the Harrisonburg 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.
Massanetta Springs & Grottoes
More adults hold degrees, more residents vote, and local pay stretches further.
Bridgewater
Fewer homes sit empty and health care is easier to reach.
Dayton
It is quieter and incomes run higher.
Elkton & Mc Gaheysville
Biking is worse and fewer households have young kids.
Downtown Harrisonburg
Transit reaches more jobs and streets are more walkable.
Broadway & Timberville
Health outcomes score lower and tree cover is thinner.
Harrisonburg shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 9% of the country and others in the top 2%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Harrisonburg's strengths and weaknesses
Harrisonburg ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Cheap car insurance, low crime, and heat safety carry most of that.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. State finances, walkability, and biking hold the score down. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Harrisonburg ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 93% of metro areas
- Crime safetyBetter than 87% of metro areas
- Heat safetyBetter than 84% of metro areas
- School gradeB+, better than 83% of metro areas
- Short commute20.4 minutes each way, better than 81% of metro areas
Where Harrisonburg ranks low
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 13% of metro areas
- WalkabilityBetter than only 27% of metro areas
- BikingBetter than only 35% of metro areas
- Cell coverageBetter than only 36% of metro areas
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 38% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Harrisonburg
A household needs to earn about $83,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Harrisonburg home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $76,466; 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 Harrisonburg's effective rate of 0.62%, 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 10 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Harrisonburg
Harrisonburg runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Harrisonburg.
Who works in Harrisonburg, and how
Work in Harrisonburg centers on education and manufacturing. 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 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 8%
Life in Harrisonburg
Harrisonburg has more restaurants and bars per resident than 73% of metro areas and more late-night spots per resident than 76% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Harrisonburg and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Harrisonburg growing, and who is moving in?
Harrisonburg has grown about 6% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Washington, DC.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Harrisonburg go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Harrisonburg, month by month
Harrisonburg sees roughly 80 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 44, with lows near 24. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 44° | 34° | 24° |
| April | 68° | 54° | 42° |
| July | 87° | 75° | 64° |
| October | 70° | 56° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Harrisonburg
The nearest airport, Shenandoah Valley Regional, is about 12 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Washington Dulles International, about 84 miles away.
The best schools in and around Harrisonburg
Schools across Harrisonburg average a B+, better than 83% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Peak View ElementaryA− · 57% proficient
- John W. Wayland ElementaryA− · 55% proficient
- Stone Spring ElementaryB+ · 52% proficient
Top middle schools
- Montevideo MiddleA · 59% proficient
- Wilbur S. Pence MiddleA− · 56% proficient
- J. Frank Hillyard MiddleA− · 55% proficient
Top high schools
- Turner Ashby HighA · 77% proficient
- Spotswood HighA · 74% proficient
- Broadway HighA · 72% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Harrisonburg school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Harrisonburg 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 Harrisonburg against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Harrisonburg suits
Common questions about living in Harrisonburg
Is Harrisonburg a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Harrisonburg ranks 74th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, low crime, and heat safety, and lowest on state finances and walkability. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Harrisonburg expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $323,916. The overall cost of living runs about 11% below the national average. Set against a $76,466 median income, cost of living beats 41% of metro areas.
Is Harrisonburg safe?
Yes, Harrisonburg is safer than 87% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $256 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Harrisonburg?
July highs average about 87 degrees, and January highs near 44 with lows near 24. That works out to about 80 pleasant days a year, more than 40% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Harrisonburg?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Massanetta Springs & Grottoes, Bridgewater, and Dayton. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Harrisonburg good for families?
Schools beat 83% of metro areas, crime safety beats 87%, and childcare runs $765 a month.
Is Harrisonburg good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 41% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 59% of metro areas. About 10% of workers already work from home.
Compare Harrisonburg with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Harrisonburg. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Harrisonburg 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.
Harrisonburg detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Harrisonburg: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Harrisonburg: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Harrisonburg: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Harrisonburg: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Harrisonburg 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.