Best Places01247, MA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood inside ZIP code 01247, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

01247 ranks 24,355th of 33,110 U.S. zip codes on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.

#24,355
of 33,110 zip codes
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 33,110 zip codes
Your rank
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The best neighborhoods in 01247

Map of the best neighborhoods in the 01247 area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
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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.

01247's strengths and weaknesses

Top 10%Clean air
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare 01247 with other zip codes.

Where 01247 ranks high

  • Air qualityBetter than 90% of zip codes
  • Short commute18.5 minutes each way, better than 90% of zip codes
  • WalkabilityBetter than 88% of zip codes
  • Tree shadeBetter than 86% of zip codes
  • Disaster safetyBetter than 83% of zip codes

Where 01247 ranks low

  • Housing crash safetyBetter than only 1% of zip codes
  • School gradeD, better than only 8% of zip codes
  • Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 9% of zip codes
  • Cheap childcare$1,385 a month, better than only 10% of zip codes
  • Household income$49,854 median, better than only 10% of zip codes

What it costs to buy a home in 01247

A household needs to earn about $56,000 a year to comfortably buy the median 01247 home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $49,854, so buying stretches a typical household.

Income to buy the median home
$56,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$1,315
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $202,135 home
Median rent
$875
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$1,031
Property tax$217
Homeowners insurance$67

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 01247's effective rate of 1.29%, 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 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in 01247

01247 runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.

Median age
47
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
25%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.0
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1816%
18 to 3419%
35 to 4919%
50 to 6421%
65 and older25%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for 01247.


Who works in 01247, and how

Work in 01247 centers on education and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.

Work from home
8%
below the national average
Unemployment
4.3%
about the national average
Job growth
−2.3%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Education19%
Health care & social16%
Retail trade12%
Manufacturing8%
Construction8%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 82%
  • Work from home 8%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 9%

Life in 01247

01247 has more restaurants and bars per resident than 78% of zip codes and more parkland per resident than 97% of zip codes. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of 01247 and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
98
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 64.9 per 10,000 residents, more than 78% of zip codes
Coffee shops
14
about 9.3 per 10,000 residents, more than 82% of zip codes
Parkland
374 acres
about 24.7 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 97% of zip codes
Living on campus
720
students living in college or university housing

What the weather is like in 01247, month by month

01247 sees roughly 68 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 36, with lows near 18. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January36°26°18°
April60°47°35°
July85°71°59°
October65°52°41°

Flying in and out of 01247

The nearest airport, Albany International, is about 35 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Bradley International, about 57 miles away.

Nearest airport
ALB
Albany International, about 35 miles
Airport size
Small hub
86th-busiest in the US, 61 nonstop destinations
Average drive
51 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around 01247

Schools across 01247 average a D, better than 8% of zip codes.

Top elementary schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every 01247 school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


01247 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 01247 against the other 33,109 zip codes.


Common questions about living in 01247

Is 01247 a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, 01247 ranks 24,355th of 33,110 zip codes. It scores highest on clean air, short commutes, and walkability, and lowest on an overheated housing market and the schools. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is 01247 expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $202,135. The overall cost of living runs about 4% below the national average. Set against a $49,854 median income, cost of living beats 9% of zip codes.

Is 01247 safe?

Yes, 01247 is safer than 62% of zip codes. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $271 per resident a year.


Compare 01247 with other zip codes


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to 01247. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in 01247 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.

01247 detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for 01247: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in 01247: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of 01247: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in 01247: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

01247 detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.