Best PlacesOrange Grove, NC Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Orange Grove, 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.
Orange Grove ranks 6,485th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on civic engagement by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Orange Grove
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.
Orange Grove's strengths and weaknesses
Where Orange Grove ranks high
- Voter turnoutBetter than 95% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 94% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 92% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than 91% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 87% of towns
Where Orange Grove ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,360 a month, better than only 7% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 9% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 25% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 36% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Orange Grove
A household needs to earn about $86,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Orange Grove home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $87,996, 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 Orange Grove's effective rate of 0.56%, 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 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Orange Grove
Orange Grove runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Orange Grove.
Who works in Orange Grove, and how
Work in Orange Grove centers on health care & social and construction. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 67%
- Work from home 27%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Orange Grove
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Orange Grove.
What the weather is like in Orange Grove, month by month
Orange Grove sees roughly 111 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 51, with lows near 32. The comfortable stretch runs April through June and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 51° | 40° | 32° |
| April | 73° | 60° | 49° |
| July | 89° | 78° | 69° |
| October | 73° | 61° | 52° |
Flying in and out of Orange Grove
Raleigh-Durham International sits about 26 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 7.7 million passengers in 2025, with 128 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Orange Grove
Schools across Orange Grove average an A−, better than 86% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Hillsborough ElementaryA · 69% proficient
Top middle schools
- A L Stanback MiddleB · 44% proficient
- Gravelly Hill MiddleC+ · 38% proficient
Top high schools
- Cedar Ridge HighA · 71% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Orange Grove school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Orange Grove 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 Orange Grove against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Orange Grove
Is Orange Grove a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Orange Grove ranks 6,485th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on civic engagement, health care access, and fast internet, and lowest on childcare costs 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 Orange Grove expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $339,281. The overall cost of living runs about 6% below the national average. Set against a $87,996 median income, cost of living beats 70% of towns.
Is Orange Grove safe?
Orange Grove is safer than 36% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $380 per resident a year.
Compare Orange Grove with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Orange Grove. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Orange Grove 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.
Orange Grove detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Orange Grove: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Orange Grove: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Orange Grove: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Orange Grove: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Orange Grove 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.