Best PlacesPenderlea, NC Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Penderlea, 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.
Penderlea ranks 23,396th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on state finances by a wide margin, and disaster risk is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Penderlea
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.
Penderlea's strengths and weaknesses
Where Penderlea ranks high
- State fiscal healthBetter than 91% of towns
- QuietBetter than 87% of towns
- School gradeB, better than 81% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 79% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 79% of towns
Where Penderlea ranks low
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 2% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 3% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 17% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 20% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Penderlea
A household needs to earn about $36,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Penderlea home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $73,467, 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 Penderlea's effective rate of 0.76%, 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 2 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Penderlea
Penderlea 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 Penderlea.
Who works in Penderlea, and how
Work in Penderlea centers on construction and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 93%
- Work from home 6%
- Transit, walk, or bike 1%
Life in Penderlea
The coast is about 47 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Penderlea, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Penderlea, month by month
Penderlea sees roughly 75 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 55, with lows near 34. The comfortable stretch runs March through May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 55° | 43° | 34° |
| April | 75° | 62° | 50° |
| July | 90° | 79° | 71° |
| October | 76° | 63° | 54° |
Flying in and out of Penderlea
The nearest airport, Wilmington International, is about 29 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Raleigh-Durham International, about 93 miles away.
The best schools in and around Penderlea
Schools across Penderlea average a B, better than 81% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Penderlea ElementaryC+ · 39% proficient
Top high schools
- Pender Early College HighA+ · 93% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Penderlea school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Penderlea 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 Penderlea against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Penderlea
Is Penderlea a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Penderlea ranks 23,396th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on state finances, quiet, and good schools, and lowest on disaster risk and biking. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Penderlea expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $137,429. The overall cost of living runs about 12% below the national average. Set against a $73,467 median income, cost of living beats 64% of towns.
Is Penderlea safe?
Yes, Penderlea is safer than 63% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $287 per resident a year.
Compare Penderlea with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Penderlea. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Penderlea 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.
Penderlea detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Penderlea: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Penderlea: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Penderlea: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Penderlea: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Penderlea 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.