Best Places16936, PA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood inside ZIP code 16936, 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.

See the map of best neighborhoods

16936 ranks 15,843rd of 33,110 U.S. zip codes on the BestNeighborhood index. Cell coverage pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on quiet.

#15,843
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 16936

Map of the best neighborhoods in the 16936 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.

16936's strengths and weaknesses

Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare 16936 with other zip codes.

Where 16936 ranks high

  • QuietBetter than 84% of zip codes
  • School gradeA−, better than 84% of zip codes
  • Crime safetyBetter than 84% of zip codes
  • Air qualityBetter than 84% of zip codes
  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than 79% of zip codes

Where 16936 ranks low

  • Cell coverageBetter than only 4% of zip codes
  • Nice weatherabout 63 pleasant days a year, better than only 12% of zip codes
  • BikingBetter than only 14% of zip codes
  • WalkabilityBetter than only 15% of zip codes
  • State infrastructureBetter than only 18% of zip codes

What it costs to buy a home in 16936

A household needs to earn about $50,000 a year to comfortably buy the median 16936 home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $66,798, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$50,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$1,178
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $188,438 home
Median rent
$1,006
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$961
Property tax$154
Homeowners insurance$63

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 16936'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, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 6 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 16936

16936 runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.

Median age
52
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
24%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.4
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1818%
18 to 3416%
35 to 4920%
50 to 6422%
65 and older24%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for 16936.


Who works in 16936, and how

Work in 16936 centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
4%
below the national average
Unemployment
4.4%
about the national average
Job growth
+1.7%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Manufacturing21%
Health care & social19%
Construction9%
Retail trade8%
Education7%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 92%
  • Work from home 4%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 4%

Life in 16936

16936 has more restaurants and bars per resident than 96% of zip codes. That concentrates in some parts of 16936 and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
73
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 338.9 per 10,000 residents, more than 96% of zip codes
Coffee shops
6
about 27.9 per 10,000 residents, more than 94% of zip codes

What the weather is like in 16936, month by month

16936 sees roughly 63 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 38, 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
January38°28°18°
April62°47°34°
July87°72°58°
October67°53°41°

Flying in and out of 16936

The nearest airport, Elmira/Corning Regional, is about 15 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Newark Liberty International, about 169 miles away.

Nearest airport
ELM
Elmira/Corning Regional, about 15 miles
Airport size
Nonhub
225th-busiest in the US, 7 nonstop destinations
Average drive
21 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around 16936

Schools across 16936 average an A−, better than 84% 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 16936 school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


16936 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 16936 against the other 33,109 zip codes.


Common questions about living in 16936

Is 16936 a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, 16936 ranks 15,843rd of 33,110 zip codes. It scores highest on quiet, good schools, and low crime, and lowest on cell coverage and the weather. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is 16936 expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $188,438. The overall cost of living runs about 16% below the national average. Set against a $66,798 median income, cost of living beats 46% of zip codes.

Is 16936 safe?

Yes, 16936 is safer than 84% of zip codes. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $176 per resident a year.


Compare 16936 with other zip codes


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to 16936. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in 16936 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.

16936 detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for 16936: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in 16936: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of 16936: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in 16936: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

16936 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.