Best PlacesPainter, VA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Painter, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Painter ranks 34,472nd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on short commutes by a wide margin, and disaster risk is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Painter
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.
Painter's strengths and weaknesses
Where Painter ranks high
- Short commute18.2 minutes each way, better than 93% of towns
- TransitBetter than 88% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 88% of towns
- School gradeB+, better than 80% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 77% of towns
Where Painter ranks low
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 5% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 7% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 16% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than only 19% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 24% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Painter
A household needs to earn about $52,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Painter home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $60,080, 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 Painter's effective rate of 0.63%, 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 4 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Painter
Painter runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Painter.
Who works in Painter, and how
Work in Painter centers on retail trade and agriculture & forestry. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 90%
- Work from home 6%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Painter
The coast is about 19 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Painter, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Painter, month by month
Painter sees roughly 70 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 47, with lows near 30. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 47° | 39° | 30° |
| April | 67° | 56° | 46° |
| July | 87° | 78° | 70° |
| October | 72° | 61° | 51° |
Flying in and out of Painter
The nearest airport, Newport News/Williamsburg International, is about 49 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Richmond International, about 83 miles away.
The best schools in and around Painter
Schools across Painter average a B+, better than 80% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Pungoteague ElementaryC+ · 38% proficient
Top middle schools
- Nandua MiddleA− · 55% proficient
Top high schools
- Nandua HighA · 73% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Painter school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Painter 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 Painter against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Painter
Is Painter a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Painter ranks 34,472nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on short commutes, transit, and cheap car insurance, and lowest on disaster risk and crime. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Painter expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $203,457. The overall cost of living runs about 12% below the national average. Set against a $60,080 median income, cost of living beats 29% of towns.
Is Painter safe?
Painter is safer than 7% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $625 per resident a year.
Compare Painter with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Painter. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Painter 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.
Painter detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Painter: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Painter: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Painter: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Painter: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Painter 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.