Best PlacesSunlight, WV Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Sunlight, 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.
Sunlight ranks 45,022nd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on fast internet by a wide margin, and biking ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Sunlight
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.
Sunlight's strengths and weaknesses
Where Sunlight ranks high
- Internet speedBetter than 97% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 92% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 84% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 83% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 73% of towns
Where Sunlight ranks low
- BikingBetter than only 3% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 3% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 10% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 10% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than only 11% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Sunlight
A household needs to earn about $35,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Sunlight home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $52,284, 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 Sunlight's effective rate of 0.35%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Sunlight
Sunlight 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 Sunlight.
Who works in Sunlight, and how
Work in Sunlight centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 95%
- Work from home 4%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Sunlight
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Sunlight.
What the weather is like in Sunlight, month by month
Sunlight sees roughly 79 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 41, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 41° | 31° | 23° |
| April | 68° | 53° | 39° |
| July | 84° | 72° | 61° |
| October | 68° | 54° | 42° |
Flying in and out of Sunlight
The nearest airport, Greenbrier Valley, is about 9 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Raleigh-Durham International, about 172 miles away.
The best schools in and around Sunlight
Schools across Sunlight average a C−, better than 25% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Frankford ElementaryC− · 30% proficient
Top middle schools
- Western Greenbrier Middle SchoolD · 22% proficient
Top high schools
- Greenbrier East High SchoolC · 35% proficient
- Greenbrier West High SchoolD · 22% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Sunlight school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Sunlight 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 Sunlight against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Sunlight
Is Sunlight a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Sunlight ranks 45,022nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on fast internet, low property taxes, and heat safety, and lowest on biking and state infrastructure. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Sunlight expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $142,600. The overall cost of living runs about 8% below the national average. Set against a $52,284 median income, cost of living beats 10% of towns.
Is Sunlight safe?
Sunlight is safer than 26% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $401 per resident a year.
Compare Sunlight with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Sunlight. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Sunlight 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.
Sunlight detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Sunlight: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Sunlight: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Sunlight: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Sunlight: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Sunlight 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.