Best PlacesWaverly Mills, SC Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Waverly Mills, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Waverly Mills ranks 7,365th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on what local pay buys by a wide margin, and disaster risk is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Waverly Mills
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.
Waverly Mills' strengths and weaknesses
Where Waverly Mills ranks high
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 99% of towns
- Household income$172,082 median, better than 98% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 94% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 93% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 93% of towns
Where Waverly Mills ranks low
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 6% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 14% of towns
- Short commute31.7 minutes each way, better than only 25% of towns
- Cheap childcare$954 a month, better than only 29% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Waverly Mills
A household needs to earn about $125,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Waverly Mills home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $172,082, 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 Waverly Mills' effective rate of 0.37%, 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 Waverly Mills
Waverly Mills runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Waverly Mills.
Who works in Waverly Mills, and how
Work in Waverly Mills centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 83%
- Work from home 15%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Waverly Mills
The coast is about 16 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Waverly Mills, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Waverly Mills, month by month
Waverly Mills sees roughly 85 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 58, 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 | 58° | 47° | 38° |
| April | 75° | 63° | 53° |
| July | 89° | 79° | 72° |
| October | 76° | 66° | 57° |
Flying in and out of Waverly Mills
The nearest airport, Myrtle Beach International, is about 20 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Charleston AFB/International, about 64 miles away.
The best schools in and around Waverly Mills
Schools across Waverly Mills average a B+, better than 75% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Plantersville ElementaryD+ · 25% proficient
Top middle schools
- Waccamaw IntermediateA · 61% proficient
- Georgetown MiddleD · 21% proficient
- Carvers Bay MiddleF · 10% proficient
Top high schools
- Waccamaw HighA · 72% proficient
- Carvers Bay HighC+ · 35% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Waverly Mills school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Waverly Mills 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 Waverly Mills against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Waverly Mills
Is Waverly Mills a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Waverly Mills ranks 7,365th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on what local pay buys, high incomes, and health care access, and lowest on disaster risk and an overheated housing market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Waverly Mills expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $508,070. The overall cost of living runs about 3% below the national average. Set against a $172,082 median income, cost of living beats 100% of towns.
Is Waverly Mills safe?
Waverly Mills is safer than 44% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $437 per resident a year.
Compare Waverly Mills with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Waverly Mills. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Waverly Mills 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.
Waverly Mills detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Waverly Mills: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Waverly Mills: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Waverly Mills: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Waverly Mills: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Waverly Mills 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.