Best PlacesWintergreen, VA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Wintergreen, 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.
Wintergreen ranks 13,464th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on health care access by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Wintergreen
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.
Wintergreen's strengths and weaknesses
Where Wintergreen ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 94% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 87% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 86% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 81% of towns
Where Wintergreen ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 15% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 16% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Wintergreen
A household needs to earn about $78,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Wintergreen home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $79,818, 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 Wintergreen's effective rate of 0.49%, 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 Wintergreen
Wintergreen 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 Wintergreen.
Who works in Wintergreen, and how
Work in Wintergreen centers on hospitality & food and public administration. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 60%
- Work from home 27%
- Transit, walk, or bike 14%
Life in Wintergreen
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Wintergreen.
What the weather is like in Wintergreen, month by month
Wintergreen sees roughly 107 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 45, with lows near 30. The comfortable stretch runs April through June and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 45° | 36° | 30° |
| April | 68° | 57° | 48° |
| July | 85° | 77° | 69° |
| October | 69° | 60° | 53° |
Flying in and out of Wintergreen
The nearest airport, Shenandoah Valley Regional, is about 27 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Richmond International, about 91 miles away.
The best schools in and around Wintergreen
Schools across Wintergreen average a B+, better than 74% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Rockfish River ElementaryC+ · 37% proficient
Top middle schools
- Nelson MiddleA− · 55% proficient
Top high schools
- Nelson County HighA− · 62% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Wintergreen school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Wintergreen 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 Wintergreen against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Wintergreen
Is Wintergreen a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Wintergreen ranks 13,464th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on health care access, tree cover, and an educated workforce, and lowest on an overheated housing market and empty homes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Wintergreen expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $312,074. The overall cost of living runs about 4% below the national average. Set against a $79,818 median income, cost of living beats 61% of towns.
Is Wintergreen safe?
Wintergreen is safer than 30% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $386 per resident a year.
Compare Wintergreen with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Wintergreen. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Wintergreen 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.
Wintergreen detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Wintergreen: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Wintergreen: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Wintergreen: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Wintergreen: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Wintergreen 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.