Best PlacesWake, VA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Wake, 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.
Wake ranks 26,654th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cheap car insurance by a wide margin, and disaster risk is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Wake
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.
Wake's strengths and weaknesses
Where Wake ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 90% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 88% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 82% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 81% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 79% of towns
Where Wake ranks low
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 6% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 16% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 21% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 26% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Wake
A household needs to earn about $79,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Wake home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $71,909; 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 Wake's effective rate of 0.50%, 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 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Wake
Wake 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 Wake.
Who works in Wake, and how
Work in Wake centers on education and health care & social. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 77%
- Work from home 22%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Wake
The coast is about 6 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Wake, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Wake, month by month
Wake sees roughly 72 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 49, with lows near 29. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 49° | 39° | 29° |
| April | 71° | 58° | 47° |
| July | 89° | 79° | 70° |
| October | 72° | 61° | 51° |
Flying in and out of Wake
The nearest airport, Newport News/Williamsburg International, is about 31 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Richmond International, about 49 miles away.
The best schools in and around Wake
Schools across Wake average a B+, better than 79% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Middlesex ElementaryB− · 43% proficient
Top middle schools
- St. Clare Walker MiddleB− · 40% proficient
Top high schools
- Middlesex HighA+ · 80% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Wake school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Wake 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 Wake against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Wake
Is Wake a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Wake ranks 26,654th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, health care access, and big-city access, and lowest on disaster risk and empty homes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Wake expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $316,763. The overall cost of living runs about 8% below the national average. Set against a $71,909 median income, cost of living beats 44% of towns.
Is Wake safe?
Wake is safer than 36% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $367 per resident a year.
Compare Wake with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Wake. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Wake 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.
Wake detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Wake: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Wake: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Wake: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Wake: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Wake 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.