Best PlacesSpartanburg, SC Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Spartanburg metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by PegasusRacer28, CC BY-SA 4.0, via commons
Spartanburg ranks 258th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on biking and walkability. It does better on a strong job market, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Spartanburg 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 Spartanburg
The towns and districts of the Spartanburg 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.
Duncan & Reidville
Local pay stretches further, incomes run higher, and more adults hold degrees.
Moore, Roebuck & Woodruff
Scores close to Duncan & Reidville, except that tree cover is thicker here.
Inman & Campobello
Crime runs lower and it is quieter.
Valley Falls & Southern Shops
More households have young kids and fewer homes sit empty.
Greer, Lyman & Wellford
Prices have run up more and health care is harder to reach.
Chesnee & Cowpens
Homes cost less, though health outcomes score lower.
Union & Pauline
Schools score lower and advertised internet is slower.
Downtown Spartanburg
Streets are more walkable, though fewer residents vote.
Spartanburg shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 2% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Spartanburg's strengths and weaknesses
Spartanburg lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. A strong job market, low property taxes, and quiet are the strongest pieces, though none of them is exceptional.
The one real hole is biking, near the bottom of the country. Walkability and transit also cost it ground. That one depends almost entirely on which part you pick, which is what the map below settles.
Where Spartanburg ranks high
- Local economyBetter than 83% of metro areas
- Low property taxBetter than 81% of metro areas
- QuietBetter than 78% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than 75% of metro areas
- School gradeB, better than 74% of metro areas
Where Spartanburg ranks low
- BikingBetter than only 3% of metro areas
- WalkabilityBetter than only 5% of metro areas
- TransitBetter than only 13% of metro areas
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 17% of metro areas
- Household income$69,142 median, better than only 19% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Spartanburg
A household needs to earn about $57,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Spartanburg home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $69,142, 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 Spartanburg's effective rate of 0.58%, 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 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Spartanburg
Spartanburg's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Spartanburg.
Who works in Spartanburg, and how
Work in Spartanburg centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 89%
- Work from home 9%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Spartanburg
Spartanburg has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas and less parkland per resident than most metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Spartanburg and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Spartanburg growing, and who is moving in?
Spartanburg has grown about 23% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Greenville, SC.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Spartanburg go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Spartanburg, month by month
Spartanburg sees roughly 80 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 52, with lows near 34. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 52° | 42° | 34° |
| April | 73° | 61° | 50° |
| July | 90° | 79° | 70° |
| October | 74° | 62° | 53° |
Flying in and out of Spartanburg
The nearest airport, Greenville Spartanburg International, is about 16 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Charlotte/Douglas International, about 59 miles away.
The best schools in and around Spartanburg
Schools across Spartanburg average a B, better than 74% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Pine St. ElementaryA+ · 75% proficient
- Jesse Boyd ElementaryA · 70% proficient
- New Prospect ElementaryA− · 60% proficient
Top middle schools
- Chesnee MiddleA− · 55% proficient
- Mccracken MiddleB+ · 48% proficient
- Rainbow Lake MiddleB · 46% proficient
Top high schools
- Boiling Springs HighA · 71% proficient
- Landrum HighA− · 65% proficient
- Spartanburg HighA− · 64% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Spartanburg school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Spartanburg 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 Spartanburg against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Spartanburg suits
Common questions about living in Spartanburg
Is Spartanburg a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Spartanburg ranks 258th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on a strong job market, low property taxes, and quiet, 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 Spartanburg expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $225,839. The overall cost of living runs about 16% below the national average. Set against a $69,142 median income, cost of living beats 28% of metro areas.
Is Spartanburg safe?
Spartanburg is safer than 30% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $493 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Spartanburg?
July highs average about 90 degrees, and January highs near 52 with lows near 34. That works out to about 80 pleasant days a year, more than 39% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Spartanburg?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Duncan & Reidville, Moore, Roebuck & Woodruff, and Inman & Campobello. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Spartanburg good for families?
Schools beat 74% of metro areas, crime safety beats 30%, and childcare runs $881 a month.
Is Spartanburg good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 28% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 42% of metro areas. About 9% of workers already work from home.
Compare Spartanburg with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Spartanburg. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Spartanburg 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.
Spartanburg detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Spartanburg: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Spartanburg: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Spartanburg: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Spartanburg: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Spartanburg 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.