Best PlacesTidewater, VA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Tidewater, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Tidewater ranks 42,296th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. The cost of living against local pay pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on civic engagement.
The best neighborhoods in Tidewater
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.
Tidewater's strengths and weaknesses
Where Tidewater ranks high
- Voter turnoutBetter than 90% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 89% of towns
- QuietBetter than 88% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 86% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 82% of towns
Where Tidewater ranks low
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 3% of towns
- Household income$34,893 median, better than only 3% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 3% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 6% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Tidewater
A household needs to earn about $64,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Tidewater home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $34,893, so buying stretches a typical household.
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 Tidewater's effective rate of 0.47%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Tidewater
Tidewater 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 Tidewater.
Who works in Tidewater, and how
Work in Tidewater centers on manufacturing and public administration. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Tidewater
The coast is about 3 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Tidewater, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Tidewater, month by month
Tidewater sees roughly 72 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 48, with lows near 30. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 48° | 38° | 30° |
| April | 71° | 58° | 47° |
| July | 90° | 79° | 70° |
| October | 72° | 61° | 51° |
Flying in and out of Tidewater
Richmond International sits about 41 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 2.5 million passengers in 2025, with 72 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Tidewater
Schools across Tidewater average a B, better than 68% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Richmond County ElementaryB− · 42% proficient
Top high schools
- Rappahannock HighB+ · 57% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Tidewater school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Tidewater 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 Tidewater against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Tidewater
Is Tidewater a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Tidewater ranks 42,296th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on civic engagement, cheap car insurance, and quiet, and lowest on the cost of living against local pay and low incomes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Tidewater expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $255,800. The overall cost of living runs about 12% below the national average. Set against a $34,893 median income, cost of living beats 3% of towns.
Is Tidewater safe?
Tidewater is safer than 16% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $476 per resident a year.
Compare Tidewater with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Tidewater. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Tidewater 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.
Tidewater detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Tidewater: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Tidewater: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Tidewater: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Tidewater: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Tidewater 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.