Best PlacesAlbany, NY 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. 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.
Photo by Famartin, CC BY-SA 3.0, via commons
Albany ranks 28th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It does not top any single list, but it lands above the national middle on good schools and clean air. The weaker spots are property taxes, internet speeds, and car insurance costs.
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.
Clifton Park, Saratoga Springs & Ballston Spa
Incomes run higher, schools score higher, and crime runs lower.
Latham & Colonie
Fewer homes sit empty and local pay stretches further.
Rensselaer, East Greenbush & Averill Park
Tree cover is thicker, though streets are more car-dependent.
Mechanicville, Gansevoort & South Glens Falls
Biking is worse and transit reaches fewer jobs.
Scotia & East Glenville
It is quieter and more residents vote.
Downtown Albany
More adults hold degrees, though fewer households have young kids.
Troy, Cohoes & Watervliet
Health care is harder to reach.
Voorheesville, Cobleskill & Schoharie
Prices have run up more and commutes are longer.
Schenectady & Rotterdam
Homes cost less.
Albany shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 4% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Albany's strengths and weaknesses
Albany ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Good schools is the standout, in the top 2% of metro areas. Clean air and tree cover follow.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Property taxes, internet speeds, and car insurance costs hold the score down. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Albany ranks high
- School gradeA−, better than 98% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than 93% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than 93% of metro areas
- Healthcare accessBetter than 92% of metro areas
- Educational attainmentBetter than 90% of metro areas
Where Albany ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 6% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than only 10% of metro areas
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 14% of metro areas
- State infrastructureBetter than only 15% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$1,304 a month, better than only 15% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Albany
A household needs to earn about $88,000 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 $97,061, 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 1.75%, 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.
Who lives in Albany
Albany's age mix sits close to the national median, and households here run smaller than average.
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 education. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 76%
- Work from home 15%
- Transit, walk, or bike 9%
Life in Albany
Albany has more restaurants and bars per resident than 75% of metro areas and more late-night spots per resident than 77% of 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 grown about 4% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from New York, NY.
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 70 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 37, with lows near 18. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 37° | 27° | 18° |
| April | 62° | 49° | 37° |
| July | 87° | 74° | 63° |
| October | 66° | 54° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Albany
The nearest airport, Albany International, is about 5 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Bradley International, about 76 miles away.
The best schools in and around Albany
Schools across Albany average an A−, better than 98% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Orenda Elementary SchoolA+ · 92% proficient
- Chango Elementary SchoolA+ · 91% proficient
- Caroline Street Elementary SchoolA+ · 90% proficient
Top middle schools
- Bell AcademyA+ · 78% proficient
- Voorheesville Middle SchoolA+ · 70% proficient
- Acadia Middle SchoolA+ · 70% proficient
Top high schools
- Bethlehem Central Senior High SchoolA+ · 100% proficient
- Niskayuna High SchoolA+ · 100% proficient
- Shaker High SchoolA+ · 98% 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
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 81% of metro areas and 15% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Albany
Is Albany a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Albany ranks 28th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on good schools, clean air, and tree cover, and lowest on property taxes and internet speeds. 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 $297,818. The overall cost of living runs about 1% below the national average. Set against a $97,061 median income, cost of living beats 81% of metro areas.
Is Albany safe?
Yes, Albany is safer than 85% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $258 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Albany?
July highs average about 87 degrees, and January highs near 37 with lows near 18. That works out to about 70 pleasant days a year, more than 23% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Albany?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Clifton Park, Saratoga Springs & Ballston Spa, Latham & Colonie, and Rensselaer, East Greenbush & Averill Park. 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 98% of metro areas, crime safety beats 85%, and childcare runs $1,304 a month.
Is Albany good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 81% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 10% of metro areas. About 15% 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.