Best PlacesJosephine, WV Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Josephine, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Josephine ranks 45,364th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on tree cover by a wide margin, and cell coverage ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Josephine
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.
Josephine's strengths and weaknesses
Where Josephine ranks high
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
- QuietBetter than 92% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than 81% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 73% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 72% of towns
Where Josephine ranks low
- Cell coverageBetter than only 1% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 2% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than only 2% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 3% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Josephine
A household needs to earn about $3,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Josephine home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $51,836, 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 Josephine's effective rate of 0.54%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Josephine
Josephine runs younger 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 Josephine.
Who works in Josephine, and how
Work in Josephine centers on other services and public administration. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 92%
- Work from home 3%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Josephine
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Josephine.
What the weather is like in Josephine, month by month
Josephine sees roughly 87 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 43, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 43° | 32° | 23° |
| April | 68° | 53° | 42° |
| July | 84° | 72° | 62° |
| October | 68° | 56° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Josephine
The nearest airport, Raleigh County Memorial, is about 12 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Charlotte/Douglas International, about 168 miles away.
The best schools in and around Josephine
Schools across Josephine average a D+, better than 18% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Coal City ElementaryD · 20% proficient
Top middle schools
- Independence Middle SchoolC+ · 37% proficient
Top high schools
- Independence High SchoolD · 18% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Josephine school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Josephine 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 Josephine against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Josephine
Is Josephine a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Josephine ranks 45,364th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on tree cover, quiet, and few empty homes, and lowest on cell coverage and a weak job market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Josephine expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $9,999. The overall cost of living runs about 22% below the national average. Set against a $51,836 median income, cost of living beats 16% of towns.
Is Josephine safe?
Josephine is safer than 10% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $516 per resident a year.
Compare Josephine with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Josephine. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Josephine 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.
Josephine detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Josephine: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Josephine: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Josephine: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Josephine: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Josephine 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.