Best PlacesWoodside, NC Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Woodside, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Woodside ranks 10,688th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on good schools by a wide margin, and disaster risk is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Woodside
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.
Woodside's strengths and weaknesses
Where Woodside ranks high
- School gradeA, better than 97% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 97% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 91% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than 91% of towns
- Household income$102,391 median, better than 86% of towns
Where Woodside ranks low
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 15% of towns
- Short commute33.8 minutes each way, better than only 17% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 19% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 67 pleasant days a year, better than only 20% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Woodside
A household needs to earn about $86,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Woodside home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $102,391, 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 Woodside's effective rate of 0.25%, 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 10 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Woodside
Woodside runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Woodside.
Who works in Woodside, and how
Work in Woodside centers on health care & social and construction. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 81%
- Work from home 18%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Woodside
The coast is about 14 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Woodside, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Woodside, month by month
Woodside sees roughly 67 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 61, with lows near 36. The comfortable stretch runs March through May, October, and November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 61° | 47° | 36° |
| April | 78° | 65° | 52° |
| July | 92° | 81° | 73° |
| October | 80° | 67° | 56° |
Flying in and out of Woodside
The nearest airport, Wilmington International, is about 17 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Raleigh-Durham International, about 119 miles away.
The best schools in and around Woodside
Schools across Woodside average an A, better than 97% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Topsail Annandale Elementary SchoolA · 71% proficient
- South Topsail ElementaryA · 65% proficient
Top middle schools
- Topsail MiddleA+ · 73% proficient
Top high schools
- Pender Early College HighA+ · 93% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Woodside school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Woodside 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 Woodside against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Woodside
Is Woodside a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Woodside ranks 10,688th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on good schools, low property taxes, and what local pay buys, and lowest on disaster risk and an overheated housing market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Woodside expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $354,890. The overall cost of living runs about 14% below the national average. Set against a $102,391 median income, cost of living beats 91% of towns.
Is Woodside safe?
Woodside is safer than 26% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $426 per resident a year.
Compare Woodside with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Woodside. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Woodside 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.
Woodside detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Woodside: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Woodside: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Woodside: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Woodside: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Woodside 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.