Best Places01343, MA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood inside ZIP code 01343, 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

01343 ranks 19,157th of 33,110 U.S. zip codes on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on tree cover by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.

#19,157
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
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in 01343

Map of the best neighborhoods in the 01343 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
Popular priorities:

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.

01343's strengths and weaknesses

Top 3%Tree cover
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 01343 with other zip codes.

Where 01343 ranks high

  • Tree shadeBetter than 98% of zip codes
  • Air qualityBetter than 91% of zip codes
  • Crime safetyBetter than 87% of zip codes
  • Disaster safetyBetter than 81% of zip codes
  • Heat safetyBetter than 78% of zip codes

Where 01343 ranks low

  • Housing crash safetyBetter than only 2% of zip codes
  • School gradeD−, better than only 4% of zip codes
  • Local economyBetter than only 5% of zip codes
  • Cell coverageBetter than only 8% of zip codes
  • Cheap childcare$1,385 a month, better than only 10% of zip codes

What it costs to buy a home in 01343

A household needs to earn about $66,000 a year to comfortably buy the median 01343 home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $85,832, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$66,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$1,546
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $247,404 home
Median rent
$871
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$1,261
Property tax$202
Homeowners insurance$82

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 01343's effective rate of 0.98%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.

Renting versus buying

At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. 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 01343

01343 runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.

Median age
56
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
30%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.2
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1810%
18 to 3412%
35 to 4921%
50 to 6427%
65 and older30%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for 01343.


Who works in 01343, and how

Work in 01343 centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.

Work from home
6%
below the national average
Unemployment
9.0%
above the national average
Job growth
−2.3%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social19%
Education17%
Retail trade12%
Construction10%
Manufacturing10%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 90%
  • Work from home 6%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 4%

Life in 01343

The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across 01343.


What the weather is like in 01343, month by month

01343 sees roughly 63 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 01343

The nearest airport, Albany International, is about 41 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Bradley International, about 53 miles away.

Nearest airport
ALB
Albany International, about 41 miles
Airport size
Small hub
86th-busiest in the US, 61 nonstop destinations
Average drive
59 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around 01343

Schools across 01343 average a D−, better than 4% 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 01343 school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


01343 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 01343 against the other 33,109 zip codes.


Common questions about living in 01343

Is 01343 a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, 01343 ranks 19,157th of 33,110 zip codes. It scores highest on tree cover, clean air, and low crime, 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 01343 expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $247,404. The overall cost of living runs about 0% above the national average. Set against a $85,832 median income, cost of living beats 58% of zip codes.

Is 01343 safe?

Yes, 01343 is safer than 87% of zip codes. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $190 per resident a year.


Compare 01343 with other zip codes


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to 01343. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in 01343 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.

01343 detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for 01343: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in 01343: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of 01343: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in 01343: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

01343 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.