Best PlacesSalem Crossroads, SC Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Salem Crossroads, 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.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Salem Crossroads ranks 47,020th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on tree cover by a wide margin, and crime is the weak spot.

#47,020
of 50,333 towns
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 50,333 towns
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Salem Crossroads

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Salem Crossroads area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

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.

Salem Crossroads' strengths and weaknesses

Top 10%Tree cover
Top 10%Fast internet
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Salem Crossroads with other towns.

Where Salem Crossroads ranks high

  • Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
  • Internet speedBetter than 93% of towns
  • Housing crash safetyBetter than 90% of towns
  • Low property taxBetter than 88% of towns
  • Cheap childcare$581 a month, better than 80% of towns

Where Salem Crossroads ranks low

  • Crime safetyBetter than only 2% of towns
  • Educational attainmentBetter than only 7% of towns
  • Voter turnoutBetter than only 12% of towns
  • Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 13% of towns
  • School gradeD+, better than only 15% of towns

What it costs to buy a home in Salem Crossroads

A household needs to earn about $28,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Salem Crossroads home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $59,493, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$28,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$654
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $113,380 home

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$578
Property tax$38
Homeowners insurance$38

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 Salem Crossroads' effective rate of 0.40%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.


Who lives in Salem Crossroads

Salem Crossroads runs older than the country.

Median age
48
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
19%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.8
near the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1817%
18 to 3419%
35 to 4922%
50 to 6423%
65 and older19%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Salem Crossroads.


Who works in Salem Crossroads, and how

Work in Salem Crossroads centers on manufacturing and retail trade. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
1%
below the national average
Unemployment
7.5%
above the national average
Job growth
+4.1%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Manufacturing36%
Retail trade20%
Health care & social11%
Public administration9%
Admin & support services8%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 97%
  • Work from home 1%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 2%

Life in Salem Crossroads

The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Salem Crossroads.


What the weather is like in Salem Crossroads, month by month

Salem Crossroads sees roughly 89 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 91 degrees. January highs sit near 55, with lows near 37. The comfortable stretch runs March through May, September, and October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January55°45°37°
April75°63°52°
July91°79°70°
October76°64°55°

Flying in and out of Salem Crossroads

The nearest airport, Columbia Metro, is about 36 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Charlotte/Douglas International, about 58 miles away.

Nearest airport
CAE
Columbia Metro, about 36 miles
Airport size
Small hub
126th-busiest in the US, 35 nonstop destinations
Average drive
51 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Salem Crossroads

Schools across Salem Crossroads average a D+, better than 15% of towns.

Top elementary schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Salem Crossroads school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Salem Crossroads 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 Salem Crossroads against the other 50,332 towns.


Common questions about living in Salem Crossroads

Is Salem Crossroads a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Salem Crossroads ranks 47,020th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on tree cover, fast internet, and a stable housing market, and lowest on crime and education levels. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Salem Crossroads expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $113,380. The overall cost of living runs about 4% below the national average. Set against a $59,493 median income, cost of living beats 13% of towns.

Is Salem Crossroads safe?

Salem Crossroads is safer than 2% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $1,148 per resident a year.


Compare Salem Crossroads with other towns


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Salem Crossroads. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Salem Crossroads 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.

Salem Crossroads detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Salem Crossroads: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Salem Crossroads: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Salem Crossroads: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Salem Crossroads: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Salem Crossroads detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.