Best PlacesHickory, NC Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Hickory 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 Netmogul, via wiki
Hickory ranks 184th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on biking and walkability. It does better on tree cover, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Hickory 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 Hickory
The towns and districts of the Hickory 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.
Vale
Local pay stretches further, incomes run higher, and fewer homes sit empty.
Granite Falls & Hudson
It is quieter, though fewer households have young kids.
Newton, Maiden & Catawba
Schools score higher, though tree cover is thinner.
Morganton & Valdese
More adults hold degrees.
Taylorsville & Hiddenite
Scores close to Morganton & Valdese, except that advertised internet is slower here.
Conover & Claremont
Prices have run up more.
Downtown Hickory
Streets are more walkable, though crime runs higher.
Lenoir
Homes cost less, though health outcomes score lower.
Hickory 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.
Hickory's strengths and weaknesses
Hickory lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Tree cover, good schools, and quiet carry most of that.
The one real hole is biking, near the bottom of the country. Walkability and cell coverage also cost it ground. That one depends almost entirely on which part you pick, which is what the map below settles.
Where Hickory ranks high
- Tree shadeBetter than 96% of metro areas
- School gradeA−, better than 95% of metro areas
- QuietBetter than 95% of metro areas
- State fiscal healthBetter than 91% of metro areas
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 86% of metro areas
Where Hickory ranks low
- BikingBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- WalkabilityBetter than only 2% of metro areas
- Cell coverageBetter than only 5% of metro areas
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 11% of metro areas
- TransitBetter than only 13% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Hickory
A household needs to earn about $57,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Hickory home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $66,993, 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 Hickory'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 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Hickory
Hickory runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Hickory.
Who works in Hickory, and how
Work in Hickory centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 90%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Hickory
Hickory has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas and less parkland per resident than most metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Hickory and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Hickory growing, and who is moving in?
Hickory has grown about 3% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Charlotte, NC.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Hickory go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Hickory, month by month
Hickory sees roughly 74 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 53, with lows near 29. The comfortable stretch runs April through June and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 53° | 40° | 29° |
| April | 74° | 60° | 47° |
| July | 90° | 78° | 68° |
| October | 75° | 61° | 50° |
Flying in and out of Hickory
Charlotte/Douglas International sits about 42 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 25.9 million passengers in 2025, with 213 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Hickory
Schools across Hickory average an A−, better than 95% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Mountain View ElementaryA+ · 72% proficient
- Snow Creek ElementaryA · 63% proficient
- Clyde Campbell ElementaryA− · 61% proficient
Top middle schools
- Jacobs Fork MiddleA · 67% proficient
- West Alexander MiddleA · 64% proficient
- Heritage MiddleA · 64% proficient
Top high schools
- Challenger Early College HighA+ · 94% proficient
- Burke Middle CollegeA+ · 93% proficient
- Caldwell Early CollegeA · 77% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Hickory school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Hickory 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 Hickory against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Hickory suits
Common questions about living in Hickory
Is Hickory a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Hickory ranks 184th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on tree cover, good schools, and quiet, and lowest on biking and walkability. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Hickory expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $224,337. The overall cost of living runs about 15% below the national average. Set against a $66,993 median income, cost of living beats 22% of metro areas.
Is Hickory safe?
Yes, Hickory is safer than 62% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $346 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Hickory?
July highs average about 90 degrees, and January highs near 53 with lows near 29. That works out to about 74 pleasant days a year, more than 32% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Hickory?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Vale, Granite Falls & Hudson, and Newton, Maiden & Catawba. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Hickory good for families?
Schools beat 95% of metro areas, crime safety beats 62%, and childcare runs $682 a month.
Is Hickory good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 22% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 16% of metro areas. About 8% of workers already work from home.
Compare Hickory with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Hickory. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Hickory 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.
Hickory detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Hickory: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Hickory: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Hickory: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Hickory: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Hickory 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.