Best Places17055, PA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood inside ZIP code 17055, 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.

See the map of best neighborhoods

17055 ranks 3,055th of 33,110 U.S. zip codes on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on few empty homes by a wide margin, and the weather ranks lowest.

#3,055
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 17055

Map of the best neighborhoods in the 17055 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.

17055's strengths and weaknesses

Top 10%Few empty homes
Top 10%Low crime
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare 17055 with other zip codes.

Where 17055 ranks high

  • Low vacancyBetter than 93% of zip codes
  • Crime safetyBetter than 91% of zip codes
  • Healthcare accessBetter than 89% of zip codes
  • Disaster safetyBetter than 88% of zip codes
  • Educational attainmentBetter than 88% of zip codes

Where 17055 ranks low

  • Nice weatherabout 61 pleasant days a year, better than only 10% of zip codes
  • QuietBetter than only 10% of zip codes
  • State infrastructureBetter than only 18% of zip codes
  • Low property taxBetter than only 20% of zip codes
  • Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 20% of zip codes

What it costs to buy a home in 17055

A household needs to earn about $82,000 a year to comfortably buy the median 17055 home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $104,437, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$82,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$1,911
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $293,636 home
Median rent
$1,459
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$1,497
Property tax$316
Homeowners insurance$98

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 17055'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 8 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 17055

17055 runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.

Median age
43
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
23%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.3
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1820%
18 to 3421%
35 to 4919%
50 to 6418%
65 and older23%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for 17055.


Who works in 17055, and how

Work in 17055 centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.

Work from home
20%
above the national average
Unemployment
2.0%
below the national average
Job growth
+1.2%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social16%
Education12%
Professional & technical12%
Retail trade10%
Public administration7%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 78%
  • Work from home 20%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 2%

Life in 17055

17055 has more parkland per resident than 80% of zip codes. That concentrates in some parts of 17055 and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
132
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 32.8 per 10,000 residents, more than 48% of zip codes
Coffee shops
22
about 5.5 per 10,000 residents, more than 69% of zip codes
Parkland
248 acres
about 6.1 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 80% of zip codes
Living on campus
712
students living in college or university housing

What the weather is like in 17055, month by month

17055 sees roughly 61 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 91 degrees. January highs sit near 43, with lows near 25. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January43°34°25°
April69°55°43°
July91°79°68°
October72°59°48°

Flying in and out of 17055

The nearest airport, Harrisburg International, is about 12 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall, about 72 miles away.

Nearest airport
MDT
Harrisburg International, about 12 miles
Airport size
Small hub
112th-busiest in the US, 41 nonstop destinations
Average drive
17 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around 17055

Schools across 17055 average an A−, better than 82% of zip codes.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every 17055 school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


17055 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 17055 against the other 33,109 zip codes.


Who 17055 suits

Families

Schools beat 82% of zip codes and crime safety beats 91%.

See the families priority ↑

Remote workers

Cost of living against local pay beats 84% of zip codes and 20% already work from home.

See the remote-work priority ↑

Retirees

Health care access beats 89%.

See the retirees priority ↑


Common questions about living in 17055

Is 17055 a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, 17055 ranks 3,055th of 33,110 zip codes. It scores highest on few empty homes, low crime, and health care access, and lowest on the weather and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is 17055 expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $293,636. The overall cost of living runs about 2% below the national average. Set against a $104,437 median income, cost of living beats 84% of zip codes.

Is 17055 safe?

Yes, 17055 is safer than 91% of zip codes. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $168 per resident a year.

What is the weather like in 17055?

July highs average about 91 degrees, and January highs near 43 with lows near 25. That works out to about 61 pleasant days a year, more than 10% of zip codes.

Is 17055 good for families?

Schools beat 82% of zip codes, crime safety beats 91%, and childcare runs $1,029 a month.


Compare 17055 with other zip codes


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to 17055. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in 17055 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.

17055 detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for 17055: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in 17055: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of 17055: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in 17055: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

17055 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.