Best PlacesProsperity, WV Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Prosperity, 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.
Prosperity ranks 31,474th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on short commutes by a wide margin, and state infrastructure ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Prosperity
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.
Prosperity's strengths and weaknesses
Where Prosperity ranks high
- Short commute17.3 minutes each way, better than 94% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 94% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 91% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 88% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 86% of towns
Where Prosperity ranks low
- State infrastructureBetter than only 3% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 4% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than only 5% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 15% of towns
- School gradeC−, better than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Prosperity
A household needs to earn about $37,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Prosperity home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $64,764, 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 Prosperity's effective rate of 0.51%, 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 Prosperity
Prosperity runs younger than the country, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Prosperity.
Who works in Prosperity, and how
Work in Prosperity centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 97%
- Work from home 1%
- Transit, walk, or bike 1%
Life in Prosperity
Prosperity has more parkland per resident than 98% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Prosperity and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Prosperity, month by month
Prosperity sees roughly 85 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 43, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 43° | 32° | 23° |
| April | 68° | 53° | 42° |
| July | 84° | 72° | 62° |
| October | 68° | 56° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Prosperity
The nearest airport, Raleigh County Memorial, is about 6 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is John Glenn Columbus International, about 175 miles away.
The best schools in and around Prosperity
Schools across Prosperity average a C−, better than 19% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Maxwell Hill ElementaryC+ · 37% proficient
- Bradley Elementary SchoolC− · 27% proficient
- Cranberry-prosperity ElementaryD+ · 22% proficient
Top middle schools
- Beckley-stratton Middle SchoolD− · 17% proficient
Top high schools
- Woodrow Wilson High SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Prosperity school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Prosperity 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 Prosperity against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Prosperity
Is Prosperity a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Prosperity ranks 31,474th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on short commutes, fast internet, and heat safety, and lowest on state infrastructure and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Prosperity expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $147,019. The overall cost of living runs about 24% below the national average. Set against a $64,764 median income, cost of living beats 51% of towns.
Is Prosperity safe?
Prosperity is safer than 15% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $454 per resident a year.
Compare Prosperity with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Prosperity. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Prosperity 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.
Prosperity detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Prosperity: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Prosperity: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Prosperity: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Prosperity: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Prosperity 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.