Best PlacesKinsale, VA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Kinsale, 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.
Kinsale ranks 43,243rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. Low incomes pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on big-city access.
The best neighborhoods in Kinsale
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.
Kinsale's strengths and weaknesses
Where Kinsale ranks high
- Big-city accessBetter than 88% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 85% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 83% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 77% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 75% of towns
Where Kinsale ranks low
- Household income$42,905 median, better than only 3% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 3% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 7% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Kinsale
A household needs to earn about $87,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Kinsale home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $42,905, 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 Kinsale'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 Kinsale
Kinsale 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 Kinsale.
Who works in Kinsale, and how
Work in Kinsale centers on public administration and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 66%
- Work from home 25%
- Transit, walk, or bike 8%
Life in Kinsale
The coast is about 8 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Kinsale, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Kinsale, month by month
Kinsale sees roughly 69 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 49, with lows near 31. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 49° | 40° | 31° |
| April | 71° | 59° | 47° |
| July | 90° | 81° | 73° |
| October | 75° | 63° | 53° |
Flying in and out of Kinsale
Richmond International sits about 55 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 2.5 million passengers in 2025, with 72 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Kinsale
Schools across Kinsale average a B, better than 65% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Cople ElementaryC+ · 38% proficient
Top middle schools
- Montross MiddleB · 45% proficient
Top high schools
- Westmoreland HighB+ · 52% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Kinsale school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Kinsale 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 Kinsale against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Kinsale
Is Kinsale a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Kinsale ranks 43,243rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on big-city access, civic engagement, and cheap car insurance, and lowest on low incomes and crime. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Kinsale expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $346,918. The overall cost of living runs about 9% below the national average. Set against a $42,905 median income, cost of living beats 7% of towns.
Is Kinsale safe?
Kinsale is safer than 3% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $786 per resident a year.
Compare Kinsale with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Kinsale. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Kinsale 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.
Kinsale detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Kinsale: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Kinsale: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Kinsale: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Kinsale: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Kinsale 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.