Best PlacesWheeling, WV Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Wheeling metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Tim Kiser ( w:User:Malepheasant ), CC BY-SA 2.5, via commons
Wheeling ranks 297th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on health outcomes and state infrastructure. It does better on a stable housing market, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Wheeling metro
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.
The best areas in Wheeling
The towns and districts of the Wheeling metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
St. Clairsville
Schools score higher, crime runs lower, and incomes run higher.
Downtown Wheeling
Fewer homes sit empty, though it is noisier.
Martins Ferry & Bridgeport
Streets are more walkable, though disaster risk is higher.
Barnesville
Tree cover is thicker, though commutes are longer.
Moundsville & Shadyside
Prices have run up less.
Cameron
Local pay stretches less far and fewer households have young kids.
Bellaire
Fewer adults hold degrees and health care is harder to reach.
Wheeling shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 2% of the country and others in the top 10%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Wheeling's strengths and weaknesses
Wheeling ranks near the bottom because several of the basics fall short at once. A stable housing market, tree cover, and cheap car insurance carry most of that.
The weak spots are broad rather than narrow: health outcomes, state infrastructure, and a weak job market all drag on the score. Those are area averages, and the map below shows which parts run well above them.
Where Wheeling ranks high
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 95% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than 84% of metro areas
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 80% of metro areas
- Healthcare accessBetter than 76% of metro areas
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 68% of metro areas
Where Wheeling ranks low
- Health outlookBetter than only 2% of metro areas
- State infrastructureBetter than only 5% of metro areas
- Local economyBetter than only 6% of metro areas
- BikingBetter than only 6% of metro areas
- Household income$64,222 median, better than only 8% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Wheeling
A household needs to earn about $43,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Wheeling home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $64,222, 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 Wheeling's effective rate of 0.78%, 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 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Wheeling
Wheeling 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 Wheeling.
Who works in Wheeling, and how
Work in Wheeling centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 87%
- Work from home 7%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Wheeling
Wheeling has more restaurants and bars per resident than 90% of metro areas and more parkland per resident than 93% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Wheeling and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Wheeling growing, and who is moving in?
Wheeling has lost about 7% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Weirton, WV.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Wheeling go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Wheeling, month by month
Wheeling sees roughly 73 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 40, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 40° | 31° | 23° |
| April | 66° | 53° | 41° |
| July | 86° | 74° | 64° |
| October | 69° | 57° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Wheeling
Pittsburgh International sits about 38 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 4.8 million passengers in 2025, with 104 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Wheeling
Schools across Wheeling average a B−, better than 63% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- West Liberty Elementary SchoolA · 68% proficient
- Bethlehem Elementary SchoolB+ · 52% proficient
- Steenrod Elementary SchoolB+ · 52% proficient
Top middle schools
- Buckeye Local Junior HighB+ · 48% proficient
- Triadelphia Middle SchoolB · 43% proficient
- Bridge Street Middle SchoolC · 34% proficient
Top high schools
- Wheeling Park High SchoolC+ · 39% proficient
- John Marshall High SchoolC · 34% proficient
- Buckeye Local High SchoolD+ · 25% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Wheeling school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Wheeling 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 Wheeling against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Wheeling suits
Common questions about living in Wheeling
Is Wheeling a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Wheeling ranks 297th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on a stable housing market, tree cover, and cheap car insurance, and lowest on health outcomes and state infrastructure. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Wheeling expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $166,320. The overall cost of living runs about 16% below the national average. Set against a $64,222 median income, cost of living beats 16% of metro areas.
Is Wheeling safe?
Wheeling is safer than 36% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $348 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Wheeling?
July highs average about 86 degrees, and January highs near 40 with lows near 23. That works out to about 73 pleasant days a year, more than 29% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Wheeling?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are St. Clairsville, Downtown Wheeling, and Martins Ferry & Bridgeport. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Wheeling good for families?
Schools beat 63% of metro areas, crime safety beats 36%, and childcare runs $987 a month.
Is Wheeling good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 16% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 36% of metro areas. About 7% of workers already work from home.
Compare Wheeling with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Wheeling. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Wheeling 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.
Wheeling detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Wheeling: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Wheeling: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Wheeling: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Wheeling: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Wheeling 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.