Best PlacesMaready, NC Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Maready, 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.
Maready ranks 39,602nd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on tree cover by a wide margin, and disaster risk is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Maready
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.
Maready's strengths and weaknesses
Where Maready ranks high
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than 91% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 90% of towns
- School gradeB+, better than 80% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 80% of towns
Where Maready ranks low
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 3% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 57 pleasant days a year, better than only 5% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 6% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 14% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Maready
A household needs to earn about $31,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Maready home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $53,362, 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 Maready's effective rate of 0.66%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Maready
Maready runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Maready.
Who works in Maready, and how
Work in Maready centers on other services and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 94%
- Work from home 3%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Maready
The coast is about 48 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Maready, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Maready, month by month
Maready sees roughly 57 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 58, with lows near 33. The comfortable stretch runs March through May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 58° | 44° | 33° |
| April | 77° | 63° | 48° |
| July | 92° | 80° | 70° |
| October | 79° | 65° | 52° |
Flying in and out of Maready
The nearest airport, Albert J Ellis, is about 8 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Raleigh-Durham International, about 94 miles away.
The best schools in and around Maready
Schools across Maready average a B+, better than 80% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Chinquapin ElementaryB · 50% proficient
Top high schools
- Duplin Early College HighA− · 65% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Maready school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Maready 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 Maready against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Maready
Is Maready a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Maready ranks 39,602nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on tree cover, state finances, and a strong job market, and lowest on disaster risk and the weather. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Maready expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $122,592. The overall cost of living runs about 16% below the national average. Set against a $53,362 median income, cost of living beats 16% of towns.
Is Maready safe?
Yes, Maready is safer than 64% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $376 per resident a year.
Compare Maready with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Maready. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Maready 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.
Maready detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Maready: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Maready: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Maready: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Maready: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Maready 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.