Best PlacesPage County, VA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in Page County, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Page County ranks 2,134th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cheap car insurance by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.

#2,134
of 3,144 counties
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 3,144 counties
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Page County

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Page County area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

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.

The best areas in Page County

The parts of Page County, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the county.

#1

Shenandoah

Fewer homes sit empty, prices have run up less, and local pay stretches further.

WorseBetter
40th nationally
#2

Luray

Tree cover is thicker, though fewer households have young kids.

WorseBetter
28th nationally
#3

Stanley

Commutes are longer and it is noisier.

WorseBetter
15th nationally

Scores across Page County run from about the 12th to the 49th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.


Page County's strengths and weaknesses

Top 10%Cheap car insurance
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Page County with other counties.

Where Page County ranks high

  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than 92% of counties
  • Big-city accessBetter than 90% of counties
  • Voter turnoutBetter than 88% of counties
  • Tree shadeBetter than 82% of counties
  • School gradeB, better than 79% of counties

Where Page County ranks low

  • Housing crash safetyBetter than only 3% of counties
  • Short commute34.7 minutes each way, better than only 4% of counties
  • Educational attainmentBetter than only 12% of counties
  • Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 14% of counties
  • State fiscal healthBetter than only 15% of counties

What it costs to buy a home in Page County

A household needs to earn about $58,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Page County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $58,209, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$58,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$1,360
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $230,907 home
Median rent
$905
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$1,177
Property tax$105
Homeowners insurance$77

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 Page County's effective rate of 0.55%, 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.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Page County

Page County runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.

Median age
47
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
24%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.4
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1818%
18 to 3418%
35 to 4919%
50 to 6420%
65 and older24%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Page County.


Who works in Page County, and how

Work in Page County centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
6%
below the national average
Unemployment
4.2%
about the national average
Job growth
+2.2%
/y 2019-2023, near the national pace

Largest industries

Manufacturing16%
Health care & social13%
Construction11%
Retail trade11%
Education9%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 91%
  • Work from home 6%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 3%

Life in Page County

Page County has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most counties. That concentrates in some parts of Page County and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
84
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 35.4 per 10,000 residents, more than 23% of counties
Coffee shops
10
about 4.2 per 10,000 residents, more than 37% of counties
Parkland
105 acres
about 4.4 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 52% of counties

Is Page County growing, and who is moving in?

Page County has held roughly flat in population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Harrisonburg, VA.

Population growth
-0%
over the decade, vs about 6% nationally
Population
23,686
down from 23,784
Population by year. Source: U.S. Census Population Estimates Program.

Where new residents come from

Harrisonburg, VA222 / yr
Nottoway County, VA185 / yr
Washington, DC137 / yr
Charlottesville, VA73 / yr
Baltimore, MD72 / yr

Where people leaving Page County go

Harrisonburg, VA425 / yr
Johnson City, TN186 / yr
Washington, DC108 / yr
Rutherford County, NC54 / yr
Blacksburg, VA54 / yr

Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.


What the weather is like in Page County, month by month

Page County sees roughly 73 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 45, with lows near 27. The comfortable stretch runs April through June and August through October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January45°35°27°
April69°56°44°
July89°76°66°
October71°58°48°

Flying in and out of Page County

The nearest airport, Shenandoah Valley Regional, is about 32 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Washington Dulles International, about 61 miles away.

Nearest airport
SHD
Shenandoah Valley Regional, about 32 miles
Airport size
Nonprimary
3 nonstop destinations
Average drive
45 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Page County

Schools across Page County average a B, better than 79% of counties.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Page County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Page County 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 Page County against the other 3,143 counties.


Who Page County suits

Families

Schools beat 79% of counties and crime safety beats 79%.

See the families priority ↑

Remote workers

6% already work from home.

See the remote-work priority ↑

Retirees

Health care access beats 73%.

See the retirees priority ↑


Common questions about living in Page County

Is Page County a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Page County ranks 2,134th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, big-city access, and civic engagement, and lowest on an overheated housing market and long commutes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Page County expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $230,907. The overall cost of living runs about 9% below the national average. Set against a $58,209 median income, cost of living beats 14% of counties.

Is Page County safe?

Yes, Page County is safer than 79% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $266 per resident a year.

What is the weather like in Page County?

July highs average about 89 degrees, and January highs near 45 with lows near 27. That works out to about 73 pleasant days a year, more than 27% of counties.

What are the best neighborhoods in Page County?

Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Shenandoah, Luray, and Stanley. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.


Compare Page County with other counties


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Page County. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Page County 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.

Page County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Page County: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Page County: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Page County: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Page County: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Page County detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
  3. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  4. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  5. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  6. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  7. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  8. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  9. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  10. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  11. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  12. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  13. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.