Best PlacesOscar, WV Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Oscar, 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.
Oscar ranks 46,241st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on quiet by a wide margin, and health outcomes rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Oscar
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.
Oscar's strengths and weaknesses
Where Oscar ranks high
- QuietBetter than 97% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 86% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 82% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 74% of towns
Where Oscar ranks low
- Health outlookBetter than only 1% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 3% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 3% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 3% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 3% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Oscar
A household needs to earn about $29,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Oscar home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $50,156, 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 Oscar's effective rate of 0.42%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Oscar
Oscar 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 Oscar.
Who works in Oscar, and how
Work in Oscar centers on other services and retail trade. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 86%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Oscar
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Oscar.
What the weather is like in Oscar, month by month
Oscar sees roughly 77 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 41, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 41° | 31° | 23° |
| April | 68° | 53° | 39° |
| July | 84° | 72° | 61° |
| October | 68° | 54° | 42° |
Flying in and out of Oscar
The nearest airport, Greenbrier Valley, is about 14 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Pittsburgh International, about 168 miles away.
The best schools in and around Oscar
Schools across Oscar average a C−, better than 25% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Frankford ElementaryC− · 30% proficient
Top middle schools
- Marlinton Middle SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
- Western Greenbrier Middle SchoolD · 22% proficient
Top high schools
- Greenbrier West High SchoolD · 22% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Oscar school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Oscar 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 Oscar against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Oscar
Is Oscar a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Oscar ranks 46,241st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on quiet, tree cover, and low property taxes, and lowest on health outcomes and internet speeds. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Oscar expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $118,300. The overall cost of living runs about 9% below the national average. Set against a $50,156 median income, cost of living beats 12% of towns.
Is Oscar safe?
Oscar is safer than 21% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $395 per resident a year.
Compare Oscar with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Oscar. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Oscar 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.
Oscar detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Oscar: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Oscar: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Oscar: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Oscar: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Oscar 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.