Best PlacesKitty Hawk, NC Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Kitty Hawk, 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.
Kitty Hawk ranks 9,059th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on health care access by a wide margin, and disaster risk is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Kitty Hawk
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.
Kitty Hawk's strengths and weaknesses
Where Kitty Hawk ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 98% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 98% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 95% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than 91% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 90% of towns
Where Kitty Hawk ranks low
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Cheap childcare$983 a month, better than only 26% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 32% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Kitty Hawk
A household needs to earn about $145,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Kitty Hawk home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $106,686, 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 Kitty Hawk's effective rate of 0.52%, 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 Kitty Hawk
Kitty Hawk 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 Kitty Hawk.
Who works in Kitty Hawk, and how
Work in Kitty Hawk centers on construction and finance & insurance. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 80%
- Work from home 18%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Kitty Hawk
Kitty Hawk has more restaurants and bars per resident than 96% of towns. The coast is about 2 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Kitty Hawk and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Kitty Hawk, month by month
Kitty Hawk sees roughly 90 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 52, with lows near 38. The comfortable stretch runs April through June and September through November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 52° | 44° | 38° |
| April | 68° | 60° | 53° |
| July | 87° | 80° | 74° |
| October | 73° | 66° | 61° |
Flying in and out of Kitty Hawk
The nearest airport, Norfolk International, is about 62 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Richmond International, about 133 miles away.
The best schools in and around Kitty Hawk
Schools across Kitty Hawk average an A−, better than 88% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Kitty Hawk Elementary SchoolA · 67% proficient
- Nags Head Elementary SchoolA− · 58% proficient
- First Flight Elementary SchoolB+ · 53% proficient
Top middle schools
- First Flight Middle SchoolA− · 58% proficient
- Currituck County MiddleB · 43% proficient
Top high schools
- The Jp Knapp Ech (i)schoolA+ · 91% proficient
- First Flight High SchoolA− · 60% proficient
- Currituck County HighB+ · 58% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Kitty Hawk school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Kitty Hawk 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 Kitty Hawk against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Kitty Hawk
Is Kitty Hawk a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Kitty Hawk ranks 9,059th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on health care access, civic engagement, and clean air, 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 Kitty Hawk expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $577,137. The overall cost of living runs about 4% below the national average. Set against a $106,686 median income, cost of living beats 90% of towns.
Is Kitty Hawk safe?
Yes, Kitty Hawk is safer than 68% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $296 per resident a year.
Compare Kitty Hawk with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Kitty Hawk. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Kitty Hawk 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.
Kitty Hawk detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Kitty Hawk: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Kitty Hawk: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Kitty Hawk: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Kitty Hawk: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Kitty Hawk 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.