Best PlacesKilmarnock, VA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Kilmarnock, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Kilmarnock ranks 24,885th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. Disaster risk pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on health care access.
The best neighborhoods in Kilmarnock
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.
Kilmarnock's strengths and weaknesses
Where Kilmarnock ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 89% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 88% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 83% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 83% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 82% of towns
Where Kilmarnock ranks low
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 5% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 6% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 14% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 16% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than only 24% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Kilmarnock
A household needs to earn about $108,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Kilmarnock home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $72,911, 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 Kilmarnock's effective rate of 0.50%, 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 Kilmarnock
Kilmarnock 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 Kilmarnock.
Who works in Kilmarnock, and how
Work in Kilmarnock centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 79%
- Work from home 18%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Kilmarnock
Kilmarnock has more restaurants and bars per resident than 95% of towns. The coast is about 8 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Kilmarnock and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Kilmarnock, month by month
Kilmarnock sees roughly 72 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 49, with lows near 29. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 49° | 39° | 29° |
| April | 71° | 58° | 47° |
| July | 89° | 79° | 70° |
| October | 72° | 61° | 51° |
Flying in and out of Kilmarnock
The nearest airport, Newport News/Williamsburg International, is about 41 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Richmond International, about 54 miles away.
The best schools in and around Kilmarnock
Schools across Kilmarnock average a B−, better than 60% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Northumberland ElementaryB+ · 51% proficient
- Lancaster PrimaryC− · 30% proficient
Top middle schools
- Northumberland MiddleB+ · 52% proficient
- Lancaster MiddleC · 35% proficient
Top high schools
- Northumberland HighB+ · 58% proficient
- Lancaster HighB− · 45% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Kilmarnock school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Kilmarnock 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 Kilmarnock against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Kilmarnock
Is Kilmarnock a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Kilmarnock ranks 24,885th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on health care access, cheap car insurance, and big-city access, and lowest on disaster risk and an overheated housing market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Kilmarnock expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $429,987. The overall cost of living runs about 6% below the national average. Set against a $72,911 median income, cost of living beats 51% of towns.
Is Kilmarnock safe?
Kilmarnock is safer than 29% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $410 per resident a year.
Compare Kilmarnock with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Kilmarnock. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Kilmarnock 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.
Kilmarnock detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Kilmarnock: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Kilmarnock: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Kilmarnock: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Kilmarnock: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Kilmarnock 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.