Best PlacesPerson County, NC Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in Person County, 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.
Person County ranks 1,435th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores best on state finances, and biking ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Person County
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 Person County
The parts of Person 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.
Hurdle Mills
More households have young kids, incomes run higher, and it is quieter.
Timberlake
Tree cover is thicker, though commutes are longer.
Roxboro
Streets are more walkable, though local pay stretches less far.
Scores across Person County run from about the 12th to the 82nd percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Person County's strengths and weaknesses
Where Person County ranks high
- State fiscal healthBetter than 87% of counties
- Disaster safetyBetter than 86% of counties
- Tree shadeBetter than 82% of counties
- Voter turnoutBetter than 80% of counties
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 80% of counties
Where Person County ranks low
- BikingBetter than only 10% of counties
- WalkabilityBetter than only 12% of counties
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 12% of counties
- Short commute30.9 minutes each way, better than only 12% of counties
- Cell coverageBetter than only 16% of counties
What it costs to buy a home in Person County
A household needs to earn about $59,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Person County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $69,255, 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 Person County's effective rate of 0.68%, 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 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Person County
Person County runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Person County.
Who works in Person County, and how
Work in Person County centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 83%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Person County
Person County has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most counties and less parkland per resident than most counties. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Person County and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Person County growing, and who is moving in?
Person County has grown about 3% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from the rest of the Chapel Hill, NC metro.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Person County go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Person County, month by month
Person County sees roughly 90 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 48, with lows near 30. The comfortable stretch runs April through June and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 48° | 38° | 30° |
| April | 70° | 58° | 47° |
| July | 87° | 76° | 67° |
| October | 71° | 58° | 48° |
Flying in and out of Person County
Raleigh-Durham International sits about 36 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 Person County
Schools across Person County average a B−, better than 66% of counties.
Top elementary schools
- Oak Lane ElementaryA− · 62% proficient
- Mangum ElementaryA− · 60% proficient
- Woodland ElementaryA− · 60% proficient
Top middle schools
- Orange MiddleB+ · 51% proficient
- Southern MiddleB · 47% proficient
- Butner-stem MiddleC+ · 37% proficient
Top high schools
- Roxboro Community SchoolA · 75% proficient
- Orange HighA− · 63% proficient
- Person Early College Innovation & LdrshpB · 47% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Person County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Person 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 Person County against the other 3,143 counties.
Who Person County suits
Common questions about living in Person County
Is Person County a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Person County ranks 1,435th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on state finances, low disaster risk, and tree cover, and lowest on biking and walkability. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Person County expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $228,786. The overall cost of living runs about 10% below the national average. Set against a $69,255 median income, cost of living beats 44% of counties.
Is Person County safe?
Person County is safer than 38% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $412 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Person County?
July highs average about 87 degrees, and January highs near 48 with lows near 30. That works out to about 90 pleasant days a year, more than 51% of counties.
What are the best neighborhoods in Person County?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Hurdle Mills, Timberlake, and Roxboro. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Compare Person County with other counties
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Person County. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Person 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.
Person County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Person County: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Person County: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Person County: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Person County: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Person County 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.