Best PlacesWinchester, VA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Winchester metro, 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.
Photo by APK, CC BY-SA 4.0, via wiki
Winchester ranks 42nd of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It does not top any single list, but it lands above the national middle on low crime and a strong job market. The weaker spots are long commutes, cell coverage, and biking.
The best neighborhoods in the Winchester 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 Winchester
The towns and districts of the Winchester 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.
White Post
Fewer homes sit empty, more adults hold degrees, and schools score higher.
Stephens City
More households have young kids and local pay stretches further.
Cross Junction
Tree cover is thicker and it is quieter.
Downtown Winchester
Commutes are shorter, though incomes run lower.
Romney & Pleasantdale
Homes cost less, though crime runs higher.
Winchester shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 8% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Winchester's strengths and weaknesses
Winchester ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Low crime, a strong job market, and cheap car insurance carry most of that.
The one real hole is long commutes, near the bottom of the country. Cell coverage and biking also cost it ground. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Winchester ranks high
- Crime safetyBetter than 94% of metro areas
- Local economyBetter than 90% of metro areas
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 86% of metro areas
- Low property taxBetter than 85% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than 83% of metro areas
Where Winchester ranks low
- Short commute31.2 minutes each way, better than only 2% of metro areas
- Cell coverageBetter than only 14% of metro areas
- BikingBetter than only 21% of metro areas
- WalkabilityBetter than only 22% of metro areas
- State infrastructureBetter than only 26% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Winchester
A household needs to earn about $87,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Winchester home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $92,148, 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 Winchester's effective rate of 0.53%, 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 Winchester
Winchester runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Winchester.
Who works in Winchester, and how
Work in Winchester 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 13%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Winchester
Winchester has more restaurants and bars per resident than 86% of metro areas and more parkland per resident than 70% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Winchester and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Winchester growing, and who is moving in?
Winchester has grown about 12% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Washington, DC.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Winchester go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Winchester, month by month
Winchester sees roughly 88 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 41, with lows near 26. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 41° | 33° | 26° |
| April | 65° | 54° | 43° |
| July | 86° | 75° | 66° |
| October | 67° | 56° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Winchester
Washington Dulles International sits about 42 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 13.9 million passengers in 2025, with 200 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Winchester
Schools across Winchester average a B+, better than 81% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Armel ElementaryA− · 60% proficient
- Sandy Hook ElementaryA− · 59% proficient
- John Kerr ElementaryB+ · 55% proficient
Top middle schools
- Daniel Morgan MiddleA · 63% proficient
- Johnson-williams MiddleA− · 57% proficient
- Admiral Richard E. Byrd MiddleA− · 55% proficient
Top high schools
- Sherando HighA · 77% proficient
- Millbrook HighA · 74% proficient
- Clarke County HighA · 73% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Winchester school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Winchester 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 Winchester against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Winchester suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 79% of metro areas, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 13% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Winchester
Is Winchester a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Winchester ranks 42nd of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on low crime, a strong job market, and cheap car insurance, and lowest on long commutes and cell coverage. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Winchester expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $345,353. The overall cost of living runs about 6% below the national average. Set against a $92,148 median income, cost of living beats 79% of metro areas.
Is Winchester safe?
Yes, Winchester is safer than 94% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $222 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Winchester?
July highs average about 86 degrees, and January highs near 41 with lows near 26. That works out to about 88 pleasant days a year, more than 50% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Winchester?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are White Post, Stephens City, and Cross Junction. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Winchester good for families?
Schools beat 81% of metro areas, crime safety beats 94%, and childcare runs $844 a month.
Is Winchester good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 79% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 77% of metro areas. About 13% of workers already work from home.
Compare Winchester with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Winchester. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Winchester 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.
Winchester detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Winchester: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Winchester: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Winchester: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Winchester: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Winchester 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.