Best PlacesWayside, VA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Wayside, 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.
Wayside ranks 23,399th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. The weather pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on big-city access.
The best neighborhoods in Wayside
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.
Wayside's strengths and weaknesses
Where Wayside ranks high
- Big-city accessBetter than 83% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 82% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 81% of towns
- Household income$91,446 median, better than 78% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 77% of towns
Where Wayside ranks low
- Nice weatherabout 58 pleasant days a year, better than only 5% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 16% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 16% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 17% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Wayside
A household needs to earn about $69,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Wayside home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $91,446, 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 Wayside's effective rate of 0.60%, 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 5 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Wayside
Wayside 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 Wayside.
Who works in Wayside, and how
Work in Wayside centers on retail trade and education. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 87%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 1%
Life in Wayside
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Wayside.
What the weather is like in Wayside, month by month
Wayside sees roughly 58 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 52, with lows near 28. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 52° | 39° | 28° |
| April | 75° | 60° | 46° |
| July | 92° | 80° | 70° |
| October | 76° | 62° | 51° |
Flying in and out of Wayside
Richmond International sits about 10 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 2.5 million passengers in 2025, with 72 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Wayside
Schools across Wayside average a B−, better than 56% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Enon ElementaryA− · 58% proficient
- Charles City County ElementaryC− · 28% proficient
Top middle schools
- Elizabeth Davis MiddleB · 44% proficient
- Elko MiddleD+ · 26% proficient
Top high schools
- Thomas Dale HighA− · 63% proficient
- Varina HighB+ · 51% proficient
- Charles City County HighB · 48% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Wayside school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Wayside 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 Wayside against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Wayside
Is Wayside a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Wayside ranks 23,399th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on big-city access, what local pay buys, and cheap car insurance, and lowest on the weather and state finances. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Wayside expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $271,728. The overall cost of living runs about 12% below the national average. Set against a $91,446 median income, cost of living beats 82% of towns.
Is Wayside safe?
Wayside is safer than 17% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $468 per resident a year.
Compare Wayside with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Wayside. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Wayside 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.
Wayside detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Wayside: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Wayside: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Wayside: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Wayside: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Wayside 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.