Best Places18960, PA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood inside ZIP code 18960, 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

18960 ranks 1,474th of 33,110 U.S. zip codes on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on good schools by a wide margin, and state infrastructure ranks lowest.

#1,474
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 18960

Map of the best neighborhoods in the 18960 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.

18960's strengths and weaknesses

#1474Best US zip overall
Top 5%Good schools
Top 10%Big-city access
Top 10%What local pay buys
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare 18960 with other zip codes.

Where 18960 ranks high

  • School gradeA, better than 97% of zip codes
  • Big-city accessBetter than 94% of zip codes
  • Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 93% of zip codes
  • Voter turnoutBetter than 92% of zip codes
  • Household income$129,361 median, better than 92% of zip codes

Where 18960 ranks low

  • State infrastructureBetter than only 18% of zip codes
  • Cheap childcare$1,200 a month, better than only 20% of zip codes
  • Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 24% of zip codes
  • Low property taxBetter than only 27% of zip codes
  • QuietBetter than only 29% of zip codes

What it costs to buy a home in 18960

A household needs to earn about $116,000 a year to comfortably buy the median 18960 home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $129,361, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$116,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$2,711
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $424,724 home
Median rent
$1,697
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$2,166
Property tax$404
Homeowners insurance$142

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 18960's effective rate of 1.14%, 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 10 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 18960

18960 runs older than the country.

Median age
46
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
23%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.6
near the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1819%
18 to 3418%
35 to 4919%
50 to 6420%
65 and older23%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for 18960.


Who works in 18960, and how

Work in 18960 centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.

Work from home
16%
about the national average
Unemployment
1.6%
below the national average
Job growth
+0.5%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Manufacturing13%
Health care & social12%
Education12%
Professional & technical11%
Retail trade10%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 81%
  • Work from home 16%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 3%

Life in 18960

18960 has more parkland per resident than 86% of zip codes. That concentrates in some parts of 18960 and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Coffee shops
5
about 3.6 per 10,000 residents, more than 58% of zip codes
Parkland
121 acres
about 8.7 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 86% of zip codes

What the weather is like in 18960, month by month

18960 sees roughly 74 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 39, with lows near 24. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January39°31°24°
April63°52°42°
July87°76°66°
October67°56°46°

Flying in and out of 18960

The nearest airport, Lehigh Valley International, is about 21 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Philadelphia International, about 34 miles away.

Nearest airport
ABE
Lehigh Valley International, about 21 miles
Airport size
Nonhub
145th-busiest in the US, 34 nonstop destinations
Average drive
31 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around 18960

Schools across 18960 average an A, better than 97% 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 18960 school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


18960 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 18960 against the other 33,109 zip codes.


Common questions about living in 18960

Is 18960 a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, 18960 ranks 1,474th of 33,110 zip codes. It scores highest on good schools, big-city access, and what local pay buys, and lowest on state infrastructure and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is 18960 expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $424,724. The overall cost of living runs about 1% below the national average. Set against a $129,361 median income, cost of living beats 93% of zip codes.

Is 18960 safe?

Yes, 18960 is safer than 92% of zip codes. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $155 per resident a year.


Compare 18960 with other zip codes


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to 18960. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in 18960 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.

18960 detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for 18960: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in 18960: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of 18960: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in 18960: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

18960 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.