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2026 Rankings
Avery County, North Carolina Home Safety Rankings - 11 ZIPs
Explore rankings under Home Safety Score model 4.0.0. Only ZIPs with all four required inputs are ranked; missing evidence is not imputed or reweighted.
Avery County, North Carolina (North Carolina) includes 11 tracked ZIP codes and 9 mapped community water systems; confirm service for a specific address. Below are the water quality rankings for metro ZIPs with all required inputs.
Most Common Contaminant Violations
| Contaminant | Violations | ZIPs Affected |
|---|---|---|
| Stage 2 DBP Rule | 22 | 4 |
| Stage 1 DBP Rule | 14 | 4 |
| Surface Water Treatment Rule | 6 | 2 |
| Stage 2 Disinfectants and Disinfection Byproducts Rule | 3 | 3 |
| Total Trihalomethanes (TTHM) | 1 | 1 |
| Haloacetic Acids (HAA5) | 1 | 1 |
| Total Organic Carbon | 1 | 1 |
Lead Risk
- Average of reported 90th-percentile lead results: 0.0070 mg/L (below EPA action level)
- 0 of 5 ZIP codes with known status exceed EPA lead action level
- 9% of housing built before 1950
- 19% of housing built before 1970
Cities in This Metro
- Banner Elk, NC — 1 ZIP code
- Crossnore, NC — 1 ZIP code
- Elk Park, NC — 1 ZIP code
- Linville, NC — 1 ZIP code
- Minneapolis, NC — 1 ZIP code
- Montezuma, NC — 1 ZIP code
- Newland, NC — 1 ZIP code
- Pineola, NC — 1 ZIP code
- Plumtree, NC — 1 ZIP code
- Sugar Grove, NC — 1 ZIP code
- Valle Crucis, NC — 1 ZIP code
All 11 ZIP Codes Ranked
View complete ranking
| Rank | ZIP | City | Score | Grade | Violations |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 28604 | Banner Elk | — | — | 19 |
| 2 | 28616 | Crossnore | — | — | — |
| 3 | 28622 | Elk Park | — | — | 12 |
| 4 | 28646 | Linville | — | — | 5 |
| 5 | 28652 | Minneapolis | — | — | — |
| 6 | 28657 | Newland | — | — | 12 |
| 7 | 28679 | Sugar Grove | — | — | 0 |
Data Sources
- Water quality: EPA SDWIS
- Housing: U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey
- Flood: FEMA NFIP
- Flood scope: historical NFIP claim records and claim-rated-zone evidence; this is not current property-map coverage.
Reporting periods vary by source; the page metadata identifies this materialization.
Methodology
Model 4.0.0 averages SDWIS water compliance and UCMR5 PFAS within drinking water, then averages drinking water, county radon, and annual AQI as three equal domains. All four inputs are required. Score methodology → · Rankings methodology →
Model 4.0.0 averages SDWIS water compliance and UCMR5 PFAS within drinking water, then averages drinking water, county radon, and annual AQI as three equal domains. All four inputs are required. Score methodology → · Rankings methodology →
Disclaimer: Scores are based on EPA SDWIS reported data and are not a guarantee of current water safety. Water quality can change. For the most current information, contact your local water utility or request a Consumer Confidence Report.
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How to cite this page
APA
ZipCheckup. (2026). Avery County, North Carolina Home Safety Rankings - 11 ZIPs. https://zipcheckup.com/rankings/metro/avery-north-carolina/
BibTeX
@misc{zipcheckup-rankings-metro-avery-north-carolina,
author = {{ZipCheckup}},
title = {{Avery County, North Carolina Home Safety Rankings - 11 ZIPs}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://zipcheckup.com/rankings/metro/avery-north-carolina/}
}
Page version: October 2026.
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