Best PlacesWeal, VA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Weal, 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.
Weal ranks 38,799th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on good schools by a wide margin, and the cost of living against local pay is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Weal
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.
Weal's strengths and weaknesses
Where Weal ranks high
- School gradeA, better than 93% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 83% of towns
- Cheap childcare$587 a month, better than 80% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 76% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 73% of towns
Where Weal ranks low
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 3% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 3% of towns
- Household income$34,490 median, better than only 3% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 5% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Weal
A household needs to earn about $35,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Weal home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $34,490; 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 Weal's effective rate of 0.51%, 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 Weal
Weal 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 Weal.
Who works in Weal, and how
Work in Weal centers on health care & social and other services. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 86%
- Work from home 3%
- Transit, walk, or bike 11%
Life in Weal
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Weal.
What the weather is like in Weal, month by month
Weal sees roughly 74 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 91 degrees. January highs sit near 52, with lows near 27. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 52° | 39° | 27° |
| April | 75° | 59° | 45° |
| July | 91° | 78° | 68° |
| October | 75° | 60° | 48° |
Flying in and out of Weal
The nearest airport, Lynchburg Regional/Preston Glenn Field, is about 38 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Raleigh-Durham International, about 74 miles away.
The best schools in and around Weal
Schools across Weal average an A, better than 93% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Union Hall ElementaryA− · 62% proficient
- Chatham ElementaryA− · 62% proficient
Top middle schools
- Chatham MiddleA · 63% proficient
Top high schools
- Chatham HighA · 77% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Weal school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Weal 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 Weal against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Weal
Is Weal a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Weal ranks 38,799th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on good schools, cheap car insurance, and affordable childcare, and lowest on the cost of living against local pay and education levels. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Weal expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $140,855. The overall cost of living runs about 22% below the national average. Set against a $34,490 median income, cost of living beats 3% of towns.
Is Weal safe?
Weal is safer than 40% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $335 per resident a year.
Compare Weal with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Weal. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Weal 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.
Weal detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Weal: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Weal: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Weal: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Weal: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Weal 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.