Best PlacesAmherst, MA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Amherst 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 Quintin Soloviev, CC BY 4.0, via commons
Amherst ranks 43rd of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on cell coverage and the weather. It does better on an educated workforce, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Amherst 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 Amherst
The towns and districts of the Amherst 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.
Belchertown
More households have young kids, tree cover is thicker, and fewer homes sit empty.
Florence
More residents vote and it is quieter.
Hatfield & Hadley
Local pay stretches further, though biking is worse.
South Hadley & Easthampton
Prices have run up less and homes cost less.
Southampton
Crime runs lower, though fewer adults hold degrees.
Northampton
Streets are more walkable, though incomes run lower.
Amherst Center & Amherst
Transit reaches more jobs and schools score higher.
Ware & Granby
Commutes are longer and health outcomes score lower.
Amherst shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 9% of the country and others in the top 2%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Amherst's strengths and weaknesses
Amherst ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. An educated workforce is the standout, in the top 1% of metro areas. Health care access and tree cover follow.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Cell coverage, the weather, and childcare costs hold the score down. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Amherst ranks high
- Educational attainmentBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Healthcare accessBetter than 98% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than 97% of metro areas
- Health outlookBetter than 95% of metro areas
- Crime safetyBetter than 93% of metro areas
Where Amherst ranks low
- Cell coverageBetter than only 8% of metro areas
- Nice weatherabout 64 pleasant days a year, better than only 11% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$1,385 a month, better than only 11% of metro areas
- Local economyBetter than only 12% of metro areas
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 13% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Amherst
A household needs to earn about $116,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Amherst home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $95,034, so buying stretches a typical household.
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 Amherst's effective rate of 1.38%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Amherst
Amherst'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 Amherst.
Who works in Amherst, and how
Work in Amherst centers on education and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 65%
- Work from home 18%
- Transit, walk, or bike 16%
Life in Amherst
Amherst has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas and more parkland per resident than 75% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Amherst and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Amherst growing, and who is moving in?
Amherst has grown about 3% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Boston, MA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Amherst go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Amherst, month by month
Amherst sees roughly 64 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 39, with lows near 18. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 39° | 28° | 18° |
| April | 62° | 48° | 35° |
| July | 88° | 74° | 61° |
| October | 68° | 53° | 41° |
Flying in and out of Amherst
Bradley International sits about 32 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 3.3 million passengers in 2025, with 92 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Amherst
Schools across Amherst average a B, better than 72% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Hadley ElementaryA− · 60% proficient
- Shutesbury ElementaryB+ · 55% proficient
- Crocker Farm ElementaryB · 47% proficient
Top middle schools
- Amherst Regional Middle SchoolA− · 58% proficient
- Chestnut Hill Community SchoolB− · 42% proficient
Top high schools
- Amherst Regional HighA+ · 80% proficient
- Belchertown HighB+ · 58% proficient
- Hopkins AcademyB− · 45% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Amherst school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Amherst 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 Amherst against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Amherst suits
Common questions about living in Amherst
Is Amherst a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Amherst ranks 43rd of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on an educated workforce, health care access, and tree cover, 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 Amherst expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $412,393. The overall cost of living runs about 10% above the national average. Set against a $95,034 median income, cost of living beats 43% of metro areas.
Is Amherst safe?
Yes, Amherst is safer than 93% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $221 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Amherst?
July highs average about 88 degrees, and January highs near 39 with lows near 18. That works out to about 64 pleasant days a year, more than 11% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Amherst?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Belchertown, Florence, and Hatfield & Hadley. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Amherst good for families?
Schools beat 72% of metro areas, crime safety beats 93%, and childcare runs $1,385 a month.
Is Amherst good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 43% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 13% of metro areas. About 18% of workers already work from home.
Compare Amherst with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Amherst. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Amherst 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.
Amherst detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Amherst: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Amherst: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Amherst: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Amherst: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Amherst 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.