Best PlacesIdylwood, VA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Idylwood, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Idylwood ranks 565th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on population health by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Idylwood
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.
Idylwood's strengths and weaknesses
Where Idylwood ranks high
- Health outlookBetter than 99% of towns
- BikingBetter than 98% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 98% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 98% of towns
- School gradeA, better than 97% of towns
Where Idylwood ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 2% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,514 a month, better than only 3% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 16% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 66 pleasant days a year, better than only 17% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 27% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Idylwood
A household needs to earn about $212,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Idylwood home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $143,162, so buying stretches a typical household.
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 Idylwood's effective rate of 1.07%, 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 Idylwood
Idylwood runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Idylwood.
Who works in Idylwood, and how
Work in Idylwood centers on professional & technical and public administration. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 62%
- Work from home 30%
- Transit, walk, or bike 8%
Life in Idylwood
Idylwood has more parkland per resident than 96% of towns. The coast is about 21 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Idylwood and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Idylwood, month by month
Idylwood sees roughly 66 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 49, with lows near 30. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 49° | 38° | 30° |
| April | 72° | 59° | 48° |
| July | 92° | 81° | 73° |
| October | 74° | 63° | 53° |
Flying in and out of Idylwood
Ronald Reagan Washington Ntl sits about 10 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 12.0 million passengers in 2025, with 128 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Idylwood
Schools across Idylwood average an A, better than 97% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Haycock ElementaryA+ · 89% proficient
- Lemon Road ElementaryA+ · 75% proficient
- Shrevewood ElementaryA+ · 75% proficient
Top middle schools
- Longfellow MiddleA+ · 90% proficient
- Mary Ellen Henderson MiddleA+ · 85% proficient
- Kilmer MiddleA+ · 76% proficient
Top high schools
- Meridian HighA+ · 89% proficient
- Mclean HighA+ · 82% proficient
- Marshall HighA · 74% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Idylwood school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Idylwood 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 Idylwood against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Idylwood
Is Idylwood a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Idylwood ranks 565th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on population health, biking, and big-city access, and lowest on noise and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Idylwood expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $781,338. The overall cost of living runs about 37% above the national average. Set against a $143,162 median income, cost of living beats 83% of towns.
Is Idylwood safe?
Yes, Idylwood is safer than 86% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $202 per resident a year.
Compare Idylwood with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Idylwood. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Idylwood 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.
Idylwood detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Idylwood: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Idylwood: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Idylwood: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Idylwood: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Idylwood 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.