Best PlacesRoanoke, VA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Roanoke metro, 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.
Photo by SchuminWeb, CC BY-SA 2.0, via commons
Roanoke ranks 148th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It does not top any single list, but it lands above the national middle on good schools and low disaster risk. The weaker spots are state finances, the weather, and an overheated housing market.
The best neighborhoods in the Roanoke metro
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 Roanoke
The towns and districts of the Roanoke metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Cave Spring
More adults hold degrees, local pay stretches further, and crime runs lower.
Blue Ridge, Fincastle & Cloverdale
Tree cover is thicker, though biking is worse.
Salem
Fewer homes sit empty, though it is noisier.
New Castle
Incomes run higher, though fewer households have young kids.
Boones Mill
Prices have run up more.
Rocky Mount, Hardy & Wirtz
Streets are more car-dependent and commutes are longer.
Vinton
Scores close to Rocky Mount, Hardy & Wirtz, except that advertised internet is faster here.
Hollins
Fewer residents vote and schools score lower.
Downtown Roanoke
Transit reaches more jobs, though health care is harder to reach.
Roanoke shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 8% of the country and others in the top 2%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Roanoke's strengths and weaknesses
Roanoke lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Good schools is the standout, in the top 2% of metro areas. Low disaster risk and tree cover follow.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. State finances, the weather, and an overheated housing market hold the score down. The detail is below, and the map is where it turns into a choice of neighborhood rather than just a place.
Where Roanoke ranks high
- School gradeA−, better than 98% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than 92% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than 92% of metro areas
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 87% of metro areas
- Voter turnoutBetter than 86% of metro areas
Where Roanoke ranks low
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 13% of metro areas
- Nice weatherabout 67 pleasant days a year, better than only 16% of metro areas
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 23% of metro areas
- Cell coverageBetter than only 27% of metro areas
- Health outlookBetter than only 27% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Roanoke
A household needs to earn about $69,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Roanoke home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $74,245, 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 Roanoke's effective rate of 0.78%, 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 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Roanoke
Roanoke 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 Roanoke.
Who works in Roanoke, and how
Work in Roanoke centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 82%
- Work from home 13%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Roanoke
Roanoke has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas and more late-night spots per resident than 72% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Roanoke and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Roanoke growing, and who is moving in?
Roanoke has grown about 1% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Lynchburg, VA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Roanoke go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Roanoke, month by month
Roanoke sees roughly 67 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 91 degrees. January highs sit near 49, 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 | 49° | 38° | 28° |
| April | 74° | 59° | 46° |
| July | 91° | 79° | 68° |
| October | 74° | 61° | 49° |
Flying in and out of Roanoke
The nearest airport, Roanoke/Blacksburg Regional (Woodrum Field), is about 3 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Raleigh-Durham International, about 117 miles away.
The best schools in and around Roanoke
Schools across Roanoke average an A−, better than 98% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Penn Forest ElementaryA+ · 80% proficient
- Grandin Court ElementaryA+ · 80% proficient
- Crystal Spring ElementaryA+ · 78% proficient
Top middle schools
- Hidden Valley MiddleA+ · 80% proficient
- Central Academy MiddleA+ · 78% proficient
- Cave Spring MiddleA+ · 78% proficient
Top high schools
- Hidden Valley HighA+ · 87% proficient
- Cave Spring HighA+ · 86% proficient
- James River HighA+ · 86% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Roanoke school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Roanoke 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 Roanoke against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Roanoke suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 13% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Roanoke
Is Roanoke a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Roanoke ranks 148th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on good schools, low disaster risk, and tree cover, and lowest on state finances and the weather. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Roanoke expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $264,949. The overall cost of living runs about 15% below the national average. Set against a $74,245 median income, cost of living beats 54% of metro areas.
Is Roanoke safe?
Roanoke is safer than 38% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $385 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Roanoke?
July highs average about 91 degrees, and January highs near 49 with lows near 28. That works out to about 67 pleasant days a year, more than 16% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Roanoke?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Cave Spring, Blue Ridge, Fincastle & Cloverdale, and Salem. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Roanoke good for families?
Schools beat 98% of metro areas, crime safety beats 38%, and childcare runs $863 a month.
Is Roanoke good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 54% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 69% of metro areas. About 13% of workers already work from home.
Compare Roanoke with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Roanoke. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Roanoke 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.
Roanoke detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Roanoke: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Roanoke: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Roanoke: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Roanoke: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Roanoke 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.