Best PlacesVirginia Beach, VA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Virginia Beach metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Distance to the water drives a lot of the difference between one part and the next. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by SchuminWeb, CC BY-SA 3.0, via commons
Virginia Beach ranks 143rd of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 13 minutes away. Its strengths are good schools and what local pay buys. The cost shows up in crime, noise, and state finances.
The best neighborhoods in the Virginia Beach 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 Virginia Beach
The towns and districts of the Virginia Beach 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.
Downtown Virginia Beach
Incomes run higher, local pay stretches further, and prices have run up less.
Newport News, Williamsburg & Yorktown
Tree cover is thicker.
Chesapeake & Portsmouth
More households have young kids, though crime runs higher.
Suffolk
Biking is worse and commutes are longer.
Norfolk
Streets are more walkable, though it is noisier.
Hampton
More homes sit empty and fewer adults hold degrees.
Virginia Beach shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 1% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Virginia Beach's strengths and weaknesses
Virginia Beach lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Good schools, what local pay buys, and cheap car insurance carry most of that.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Crime, noise, and state finances 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 Virginia Beach ranks high
- School gradeA−, better than 92% of metro areas
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 90% of metro areas
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 83% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than 83% of metro areas
- Household income$90,702 median, better than 76% of metro areas
Where Virginia Beach ranks low
- Crime safetyBetter than only 15% of metro areas
- QuietBetter than only 16% of metro areas
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 21% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 21% of metro areas
- Nice weatherabout 72 pleasant days a year, better than only 27% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Virginia Beach
A household needs to earn about $93,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Virginia Beach home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $90,702; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Virginia Beach's effective rate of 0.81%, 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 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Virginia Beach
Virginia Beach'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 Virginia Beach.
Who works in Virginia Beach, and how
Work in Virginia Beach centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 82%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Virginia Beach
Virginia Beach has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas and less parkland per resident than most metro areas. The coast is about 13 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Virginia Beach and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Virginia Beach growing, and who is moving in?
Virginia Beach has grown about 4% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Washington, DC.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Virginia Beach go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Virginia Beach, month by month
Virginia Beach sees roughly 72 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 91 degrees. January highs sit near 54, with lows near 32. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 54° | 43° | 32° |
| April | 73° | 61° | 49° |
| July | 91° | 81° | 72° |
| October | 76° | 64° | 54° |
Flying in and out of Virginia Beach
The nearest airport, Norfolk International, is about 8 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Richmond International, about 82 miles away.
The best schools in and around Virginia Beach
Schools across Virginia Beach average an A−, better than 92% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Kingston ElementaryA+ · 92% proficient
- Mount Vernon ElementaryA+ · 88% proficient
- Poquoson ElementaryA+ · 84% proficient
Top middle schools
- Old Donation SchoolA+ · 100% proficient
- Tabb MiddleA+ · 85% proficient
- Great Neck MiddleA+ · 85% proficient
Top high schools
- The Jp Knapp Ech (i)schoolA+ · 91% proficient
- Floyd Kellam HighA+ · 86% proficient
- Camden Early College HighA+ · 85% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Virginia Beach school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Virginia Beach 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 Virginia Beach against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Virginia Beach suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 90% of metro areas and 12% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Virginia Beach
Is Virginia Beach a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Virginia Beach ranks 143rd of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on good schools, what local pay buys, and cheap car insurance, and lowest on crime and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Virginia Beach expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $354,136. The overall cost of living runs about 13% below the national average. Set against a $90,702 median income, cost of living beats 90% of metro areas.
Is Virginia Beach safe?
Virginia Beach is safer than 15% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $469 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Virginia Beach?
July highs average about 91 degrees, and January highs near 54 with lows near 32. That works out to about 72 pleasant days a year, more than 27% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Virginia Beach?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Downtown Virginia Beach, Newport News, Williamsburg & Yorktown, and Chesapeake & Portsmouth. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Virginia Beach good for families?
Schools beat 92% of metro areas, crime safety beats 15%, and childcare runs $929 a month.
Is Virginia Beach good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 90% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 38% of metro areas. About 12% of workers already work from home.
Compare Virginia Beach with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Virginia Beach. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Virginia Beach 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.
Virginia Beach detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Virginia Beach: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Virginia Beach: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Virginia Beach: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Virginia Beach: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Virginia Beach 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.