Best PlacesMadison Heights, VA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Madison Heights, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Madison Heights ranks 25,060th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on transit by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Madison Heights
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.
Madison Heights' strengths and weaknesses
Where Madison Heights ranks high
- TransitBetter than 94% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 88% of towns
- Cheap childcare$558 a month, better than 86% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 85% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 83% of towns
Where Madison Heights ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 8% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 16% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 66 pleasant days a year, better than only 18% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 28% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 28% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Madison Heights
A household needs to earn about $50,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Madison Heights home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $65,131, 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 Madison Heights' effective rate of 0.47%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 6 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Madison Heights
Madison Heights 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 Madison Heights.
Who works in Madison Heights, and how
Work in Madison Heights centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 90%
- Work from home 9%
- Transit, walk, or bike 1%
Life in Madison Heights
Madison Heights has more restaurants and bars per resident than 66% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Madison Heights and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Madison Heights, month by month
Madison Heights sees roughly 66 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 91 degrees. January highs sit near 50, with lows near 26. The comfortable stretch runs April through June and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 50° | 37° | 26° |
| April | 74° | 58° | 44° |
| July | 91° | 78° | 66° |
| October | 74° | 60° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Madison Heights
The nearest airport, Lynchburg Regional/Preston Glenn Field, is about 10 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Richmond International, about 98 miles away.
The best schools in and around Madison Heights
Schools across Madison Heights average a B, better than 71% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Paul Munro ElementaryA · 70% proficient
- Concord ElementaryA− · 57% proficient
- Robert S. Payne ElementaryB+ · 52% proficient
Top middle schools
- Rustburg MiddleA− · 55% proficient
- Appomattox MiddleA− · 54% proficient
- Paul Laurence Dunbar Middle For InnovationB+ · 52% proficient
Top high schools
- Appomattox County HighA · 77% proficient
- Rustburg HighA · 70% proficient
- Amherst County HighA− · 63% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Madison Heights school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Madison Heights 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 Madison Heights against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Madison Heights
Is Madison Heights a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Madison Heights ranks 25,060th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on transit, low disaster risk, and affordable childcare, and lowest on noise and state finances. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Madison Heights expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $201,045. The overall cost of living runs about 16% below the national average. Set against a $65,131 median income, cost of living beats 41% of towns.
Is Madison Heights safe?
Madison Heights is safer than 28% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $405 per resident a year.
Compare Madison Heights with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Madison Heights. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Madison Heights 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.
Madison Heights detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Madison Heights: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Madison Heights: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Madison Heights: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Madison Heights: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Madison Heights 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.