Best PlacesWaynesboro City, VA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in Waynesboro City, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Waynesboro City ranks 1,182nd of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cell coverage by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.

#1,182
of 3,144 counties
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 3,144 counties
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Waynesboro City

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Waynesboro City area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

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.

Waynesboro City's strengths and weaknesses

Top 10%Cell coverage
Top 10%Cheap car insurance
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Waynesboro City with other counties.

Where Waynesboro City ranks high

  • Cell coverageBetter than 93% of counties
  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than 91% of counties
  • Low vacancyBetter than 88% of counties
  • WalkabilityBetter than 85% of counties
  • TransitBetter than 85% of counties

Where Waynesboro City ranks low

  • QuietBetter than only 1% of counties
  • Housing crash safetyBetter than only 15% of counties
  • State fiscal healthBetter than only 15% of counties
  • Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 32% of counties
  • Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 33% of counties

What it costs to buy a home in Waynesboro City

A household needs to earn about $67,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Waynesboro City home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $63,142; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.

Income to buy the median home
$67,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$1,552
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $259,072 home
Median rent
$1,073
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$1,321
Property tax$145
Homeowners insurance$86

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 Waynesboro City'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 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Waynesboro City

Waynesboro City's age mix sits close to the national median, and households here run smaller than average.

Median age
39
about the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
18%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.3
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1822%
18 to 3422%
35 to 4920%
50 to 6418%
65 and older18%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Waynesboro City.


Who works in Waynesboro City, and how

Work in Waynesboro City centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
11%
below the national average
Unemployment
3.5%
below the national average
Job growth
+1.9%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social17%
Manufacturing16%
Retail trade12%
Education8%
Other services7%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 84%
  • Work from home 11%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 5%

Life in Waynesboro City

Waynesboro City has more restaurants and bars per resident than 71% of counties and more parkland per resident than 70% of counties. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Waynesboro City and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
136
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 61.3 per 10,000 residents, more than 71% of counties
Coffee shops
11
about 5.0 per 10,000 residents, more than 48% of counties
Parkland
145 acres
about 6.6 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 70% of counties
Open past 10pm
~40
food and drink venues open late, about 18.1 per 10,000 residents, more than 96% of counties

Is Waynesboro City growing, and who is moving in?

Waynesboro City has grown about 10% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from the rest of the Staunton, VA metro.

Population growth
+10%
over the decade, vs about 6% nationally
Population
23,498
up from 21,305
Population by year. Source: U.S. Census Population Estimates Program.

Where new residents come from

The rest of the Staunton, VA metro663 / yr
Charlottesville, VA332 / yr
Winchester, VA290 / yr
Washington, DC279 / yr
Virginia Beach, VA247 / yr

Where people leaving Waynesboro City go

The rest of the Staunton, VA metro505 / yr
Greensboro, NC192 / yr
Charlottesville, VA192 / yr
Roanoke, VA110 / yr
Lynchburg, VA94 / yr

Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.


What the weather is like in Waynesboro City, month by month

Waynesboro City sees roughly 83 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 44, with lows near 24. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January44°34°24°
April68°54°42°
July87°75°64°
October70°56°45°

Flying in and out of Waynesboro City

The nearest airport, Shenandoah Valley Regional, is about 13 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Richmond International, about 95 miles away.

Nearest airport
SHD
Shenandoah Valley Regional, about 13 miles
Airport size
Nonprimary
3 nonstop destinations
Average drive
19 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Waynesboro City

Schools across Waynesboro City average a B, better than 73% of counties.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Waynesboro City school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Waynesboro City 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 Waynesboro City against the other 3,143 counties.


Who Waynesboro City suits

Families

Schools beat 73% of counties.

See the families priority ↑

Remote workers

Internet is fast and widely advertised and 11% already work from home.

See the remote-work priority ↑

Retirees

Health care access beats 56%.

See the retirees priority ↑


Common questions about living in Waynesboro City

Is Waynesboro City a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Waynesboro City ranks 1,182nd of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on cell coverage, cheap car insurance, and few empty homes, and lowest on noise 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 Waynesboro City expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $259,072. The overall cost of living runs about 14% below the national average. Set against a $63,142 median income, cost of living beats 32% of counties.

Is Waynesboro City safe?

Waynesboro City is safer than 47% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $373 per resident a year.

What is the weather like in Waynesboro City?

July highs average about 87 degrees, and January highs near 44 with lows near 24. That works out to about 83 pleasant days a year, more than 42% of counties.

Is Waynesboro City good for families?

Schools beat 73% of counties, crime safety beats 47%, and childcare runs $826 a month.


Compare Waynesboro City with other counties


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Waynesboro City. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Waynesboro City 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.

Waynesboro City detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Waynesboro City: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Waynesboro City: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Waynesboro City: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Waynesboro City: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Waynesboro City detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
  3. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  4. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  5. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  6. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  7. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  8. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  9. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  10. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  11. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  12. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  13. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.