Best PlacesHuntington, WV Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Huntington 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 User Youngamerican on en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via commons
Huntington ranks 322nd of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on health outcomes and the weather. It does better on a stable housing market, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Huntington 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 Huntington
The towns and districts of the Huntington 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.
Downtown Huntington
More adults hold degrees, advertised internet is faster, and fewer homes sit empty.
Winfield, Poca & Lesage
It is quieter and tree cover is thicker.
Salt Rock
Fewer households have young kids and streets are more car-dependent.
Kitts Hill
Schools score higher, though local pay stretches less far.
Ashland, South Point & Chesapeake
Commutes are shorter, though crime runs higher.
Ironton, Greenup & Flatwoods
Prices have run up less and homes cost less.
Louisa, Kenova & Wayne
Grayson & Olive Hill
Health care is harder to reach and disaster risk is higher.
Huntington shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 1% of the country and others in the top 4%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Huntington's strengths and weaknesses
Huntington ranks near the bottom because several of the basics fall short at once. A stable housing market, tree cover, and affordable childcare carry most of that.
The weak spots are broad rather than narrow: health outcomes, the weather, and biking all drag on the score. Those are area averages, and the map below shows which parts run well above them.
Where Huntington ranks high
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 93% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than 89% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$714 a month, better than 77% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than 74% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than 70% of metro areas
Where Huntington ranks low
- Health outlookBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- Nice weatherabout 60 pleasant days a year, better than only 3% of metro areas
- BikingBetter than only 4% of metro areas
- State infrastructureBetter than only 5% of metro areas
- Household income$64,349 median, better than only 9% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Huntington
A household needs to earn about $41,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Huntington home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $64,349, 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 Huntington's effective rate of 0.69%, 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 6 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Huntington
Huntington 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 Huntington.
Who works in Huntington, and how
Work in Huntington centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 87%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Huntington
Huntington has more restaurants and bars per resident than 90% of metro areas and less parkland per resident than most metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Huntington and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Huntington growing, and who is moving in?
Huntington has lost about 5% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Charleston, WV.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Huntington go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Huntington, month by month
Huntington sees roughly 60 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 46, with lows near 26. The comfortable stretch runs April through June and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 46° | 35° | 26° |
| April | 72° | 57° | 44° |
| July | 89° | 77° | 67° |
| October | 74° | 59° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Huntington
The nearest airport, Tri-State/Milton J Ferguson Field, is about 8 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is John Glenn Columbus International, about 113 miles away.
The best schools in and around Huntington
Schools across Huntington average a C, better than 30% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Hite Saunders Elementary SchoolB · 48% proficient
- Nichols Elementary SchoolB · 45% proficient
- Village Of Barboursville Elementary SchB− · 44% proficient
Top middle schools
- Buffalo Middle SchoolB · 46% proficient
- Barboursville Middle SchoolB− · 41% proficient
- Milton Middle SchoolC+ · 36% proficient
Top high schools
- Cabell Midland High SchoolC+ · 39% proficient
- Huntington High SchoolC · 35% proficient
- Spring Valley High SchoolD+ · 25% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Huntington school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Huntington 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 Huntington against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Huntington suits
Families
Schools land around the 30th percentile and crime safety beats 58%.
Common questions about living in Huntington
Is Huntington a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Huntington ranks 322nd of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on a stable housing market, tree cover, and affordable childcare, and lowest on health outcomes and the weather. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Huntington expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $160,310. The overall cost of living runs about 17% below the national average. Set against a $64,349 median income, cost of living beats 18% of metro areas.
Is Huntington safe?
Yes, Huntington is safer than 58% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $303 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Huntington?
July highs average about 89 degrees, and January highs near 46 with lows near 26. That works out to about 60 pleasant days a year, more than 3% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Huntington?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Downtown Huntington, Winfield, Poca & Lesage, and Salt Rock. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Huntington good for families?
Schools beat 30% of metro areas, crime safety beats 58%, and childcare runs $714 a month.
Is Huntington good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 18% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 50% of metro areas. About 8% of workers already work from home.
Compare Huntington with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Huntington. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Huntington 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.
Huntington detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Huntington: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Huntington: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Huntington: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Huntington: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Huntington 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.