Best PlacesAlbany, GA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Albany metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Michael Rivera, CC BY-SA 3.0, via commons
Albany ranks 384th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on crime and the schools. It does better on quiet, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Albany metro
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.
The best areas in Albany
The towns and districts of the Albany metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Leesburg
Fewer homes sit empty, crime runs lower, and incomes run higher.
Dawson & Oakland
Local pay stretches further and more adults hold degrees.
Downtown Albany
Health outcomes score higher, though homes cost more.
Sylvester
It is quieter and prices have run up less.
Scores across Albany run from about the 1st to the 84th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Albany's strengths and weaknesses
Albany ranks near the bottom because several of the basics fall short at once. Quiet, affordable childcare, and state finances carry most of that.
The weak spots are broad rather than narrow: crime, the schools, and low incomes all drag on the score. Those are area averages, and the map below shows which parts run well above them.
Where Albany ranks high
- QuietBetter than 91% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$619 a month, better than 90% of metro areas
- State fiscal healthBetter than 77% of metro areas
- State infrastructureBetter than 73% of metro areas
- Short commute22.2 minutes each way, better than 63% of metro areas
Where Albany ranks low
- Crime safetyBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- School gradeD, better than only 1% of metro areas
- Household income$61,705 median, better than only 4% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than only 9% of metro areas
- Health outlookBetter than only 10% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Albany
A household needs to earn about $43,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Albany home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $61,705, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
Where the monthly payment goes
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 Albany's effective rate of 1.08%, 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 5 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Albany
Albany's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Albany.
Who works in Albany, and how
Work in Albany centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 87%
- Work from home 9%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Albany
Albany has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas and less parkland per resident than most metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Albany and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Albany growing, and who is moving in?
Albany has lost about 4% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Atlanta, GA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Albany go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Albany, month by month
Albany sees roughly 86 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 94 degrees. January highs sit near 65, with lows near 38. The comfortable stretch runs February through May, October, and November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 65° | 50° | 38° |
| April | 82° | 68° | 53° |
| July | 94° | 82° | 73° |
| October | 85° | 70° | 58° |
Flying in and out of Albany
The nearest airport, Southwest Georgia Regional, is about 3 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Hartsfield/Jackson Atlanta International, about 143 miles away.
The best schools in and around Albany
Schools across Albany average a D, better than 1% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Worth County Elementary SchoolB− · 42% proficient
- Lake Park Elementary SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
- Lincoln Elementary Magnet SchoolC− · 27% proficient
Top middle schools
- Robert A. Cross Middle MagnetB · 45% proficient
- Lee County Middle School WestB− · 43% proficient
- Lee County Middle School EastC+ · 36% proficient
Top high schools
- Westover High SchoolD · 18% proficient
- Worth County High SchoolD− · 17% proficient
- Lee County High SchoolD− · 13% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Albany school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Albany 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 Albany against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Albany suits
Common questions about living in Albany
Is Albany a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Albany ranks 384th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on quiet, affordable childcare, and state finances, and lowest on crime and the schools. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Albany expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $157,942. The overall cost of living runs about 18% below the national average. Set against a $61,705 median income, cost of living beats 11% of metro areas.
Is Albany safe?
Albany is safer than 1% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $601 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Albany?
July highs average about 94 degrees, and January highs near 65 with lows near 38. That works out to about 86 pleasant days a year, more than 48% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Albany?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Leesburg, Dawson & Oakland, and Downtown Albany. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Albany good for families?
Schools beat 1% of metro areas, crime safety beats 1%, and childcare runs $619 a month.
Is Albany good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 11% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 44% of metro areas. About 9% of workers already work from home.
Compare Albany with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Albany. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Albany 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.
Albany detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Albany: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Albany: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Albany: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Albany: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Albany detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.