Best PlacesWananish, NC Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Wananish, 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.
Wananish ranks 40,837th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on fast internet by a wide margin, and disaster risk is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Wananish
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.
Wananish's strengths and weaknesses
Where Wananish ranks high
- Internet speedBetter than 93% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than 91% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 86% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 77% of towns
- Cheap childcare$627 a month, better than 76% of towns
Where Wananish ranks low
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 2% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 16% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 17% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 26% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 29% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Wananish
A household needs to earn about $34,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Wananish home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $67,448, 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 Wananish's effective rate of 0.67%, 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 4 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Wananish
Wananish runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Wananish.
Who works in Wananish, and how
Work in Wananish centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 90%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 1%
Life in Wananish
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Wananish.
What the weather is like in Wananish, month by month
Wananish sees roughly 78 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 91 degrees. January highs sit near 57, with lows near 38. The comfortable stretch runs March through May and September through November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 57° | 47° | 38° |
| April | 76° | 64° | 53° |
| July | 91° | 81° | 73° |
| October | 77° | 66° | 57° |
Flying in and out of Wananish
The nearest airport, Wilmington International, is about 35 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Raleigh-Durham International, about 106 miles away.
The best schools in and around Wananish
Schools across Wananish average a C, better than 34% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Town Creek ElementaryB+ · 54% proficient
- Hallsboro-artesia ElementaryC− · 28% proficient
Top middle schools
- South Brunswick MiddleA− · 54% proficient
Top high schools
- Brunswick County Early CollegeA+ · 98% proficient
- East Columbus Junior-senior HighC+ · 36% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Wananish school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Wananish 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 Wananish against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Wananish
Is Wananish a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Wananish ranks 40,837th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on fast internet, state finances, and tree cover, and lowest on disaster risk and summer heat. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Wananish expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $132,528. The overall cost of living runs about 10% below the national average. Set against a $67,448 median income, cost of living beats 34% of towns.
Is Wananish safe?
Wananish is safer than 17% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $504 per resident a year.
Compare Wananish with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Wananish. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Wananish 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.
Wananish detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Wananish: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Wananish: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Wananish: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Wananish: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Wananish 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.