Best PlacesPalmer Springs, VA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Palmer Springs, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Palmer Springs ranks 36,428th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. Long commutes pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on low property taxes.
The best neighborhoods in Palmer Springs
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.
Palmer Springs' strengths and weaknesses
Where Palmer Springs ranks high
- Low property taxBetter than 89% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 87% of towns
- Household income$100,776 median, better than 85% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 85% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 79% of towns
Where Palmer Springs ranks low
- Short commute42.8 minutes each way, better than only 3% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 6% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 62 pleasant days a year, better than only 12% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 12% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Palmer Springs
A household needs to earn about $92,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Palmer Springs home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $100,776, 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 Palmer Springs' effective rate of 0.40%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Palmer Springs
Palmer Springs 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 Palmer Springs.
Who works in Palmer Springs, and how
Work in Palmer Springs centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 88%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 1%
Life in Palmer Springs
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Palmer Springs.
What the weather is like in Palmer Springs, month by month
Palmer Springs sees roughly 62 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 52, with lows near 28. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 52° | 39° | 28° |
| April | 74° | 59° | 45° |
| July | 90° | 78° | 68° |
| October | 75° | 60° | 49° |
Flying in and out of Palmer Springs
Raleigh-Durham International sits about 57 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 Palmer Springs
Schools across Palmer Springs average a C−, better than 40% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- South Hill ElementaryA · 65% proficient
Top middle schools
- Warren County MiddleD+ · 25% proficient
Top high schools
- Warren New Tech HighC− · 26% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Palmer Springs school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Palmer Springs 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 Palmer Springs against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Palmer Springs
Is Palmer Springs a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Palmer Springs ranks 36,428th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low property taxes, health care access, and high incomes, and lowest on long commutes and crime. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Palmer Springs expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $371,200. The overall cost of living runs about 8% below the national average. Set against a $100,776 median income, cost of living beats 85% of towns.
Is Palmer Springs safe?
Palmer Springs is safer than 6% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $669 per resident a year.
Compare Palmer Springs with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Palmer Springs. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Palmer Springs 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.
Palmer Springs detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Palmer Springs: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Palmer Springs: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Palmer Springs: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Palmer Springs: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Palmer Springs 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.