Best PlacesPiney, AL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Piney, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Piney ranks 30,237th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low property taxes by a wide margin, and empty homes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Piney
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.
Piney's strengths and weaknesses
Where Piney ranks high
- Low property taxBetter than 94% of towns
- Cheap childcare$528 a month, better than 90% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 89% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 88% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 84% of towns
Where Piney ranks low
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 11% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 16% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 23% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 24% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Piney
A household needs to earn about $58,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Piney home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $69,336, 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 Piney's effective rate of 0.32%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Piney
Piney 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 Piney.
Who works in Piney, and how
Work in Piney centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 94%
- Work from home 4%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Piney
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Piney.
What the weather is like in Piney, month by month
Piney sees roughly 85 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 52, with lows near 33. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 52° | 41° | 33° |
| April | 73° | 61° | 50° |
| July | 89° | 78° | 69° |
| October | 75° | 62° | 52° |
Flying in and out of Piney
The nearest airport, Lovell Field, is about 65 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Hartsfield/Jackson Atlanta International, about 78 miles away.
The best schools in and around Piney
Schools across Piney average a C, better than 37% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Centre Elementary SchoolC+ · 37% proficient
Top middle schools
- Centre Middle SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
Top high schools
- Cherokee County High SchoolD+ · 25% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Piney school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Piney 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 Piney against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Piney
Is Piney a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Piney ranks 30,237th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low property taxes, affordable childcare, and state infrastructure, and lowest on empty homes and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Piney expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $237,776. The overall cost of living runs about 13% below the national average. Set against a $69,336 median income, cost of living beats 54% of towns.
Is Piney safe?
Yes, Piney is safer than 66% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $242 per resident a year.
Compare Piney with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Piney. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Piney 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.
Piney detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Piney: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Piney: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Piney: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Piney: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Piney 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.