Best PlacesAthens, GA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Athens 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 Richardelainechambers at English Wikipedia, via wiki
Athens ranks 228th 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 an educated workforce and affordable childcare. The weaker spots are cell coverage, an overheated housing market, and the schools.
The best neighborhoods in the Athens 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 Athens
The towns and districts of the Athens 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.
Watkinsville, Bogart & Bishop
Local pay stretches further, incomes run higher, and schools score higher.
Colbert, Danielsville & Comer
More households have young kids, though fewer adults hold degrees.
Downtown Athens
Biking is better, though fewer residents vote.
Hull
Homes cost less, though health outcomes score lower.
Athens shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 3% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Athens' strengths and weaknesses
Athens lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. An educated workforce, affordable childcare, and quiet carry most of that.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Cell coverage, an overheated housing market, and the schools hold the score down. The detail is below, and the map is where it turns into a choice of neighborhood rather than just a place.
Where Athens ranks high
- Educational attainmentBetter than 91% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$639 a month, better than 88% of metro areas
- QuietBetter than 80% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than 78% of metro areas
- Health outlookBetter than 77% of metro areas
Where Athens ranks low
- Cell coverageBetter than only 9% of metro areas
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 9% of metro areas
- School gradeC, better than only 25% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than only 28% of metro areas
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 29% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Athens
A household needs to earn about $90,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Athens home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $74,887, 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 Athens' effective rate of 0.78%, 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 Athens
Athens runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Athens.
Who works in Athens, and how
Work in Athens centers on education and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 78%
- Work from home 13%
- Transit, walk, or bike 9%
Life in Athens
Athens has more late-night spots per resident than 99% of metro areas. That concentrates in some parts of Athens and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Athens growing, and who is moving in?
Athens has grown about 13% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Atlanta, GA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Athens go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Athens, month by month
Athens sees roughly 84 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 94 degrees. January highs sit near 58, with lows near 33. The comfortable stretch runs March through May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 58° | 45° | 33° |
| April | 78° | 63° | 49° |
| July | 94° | 80° | 71° |
| October | 80° | 64° | 52° |
Flying in and out of Athens
Hartsfield/Jackson Atlanta International sits about 64 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 51.5 million passengers in 2025, with 278 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Athens
Schools across Athens average a C, better than 25% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Colham Ferry Elementary SchoolA · 71% proficient
- Malcom Bridge Elementary SchoolA · 71% proficient
- East Jackson Elementary SchoolB · 49% proficient
Top middle schools
- Malcom Bridge Middle SchoolA+ · 72% proficient
- Oconee County Middle SchoolA+ · 68% proficient
- East Jackson Middle SchoolC+ · 37% proficient
Top high schools
- North Oconee High SchoolA · 69% proficient
- Oconee County High SchoolB+ · 52% proficient
- Madison County High SchoolC+ · 37% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Athens school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Athens 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 Athens against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Athens suits
Families
Schools land around the 25th percentile and crime safety beats 55%.
Common questions about living in Athens
Is Athens a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Athens ranks 228th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on an educated workforce, affordable childcare, and quiet, and lowest on cell coverage and an overheated housing market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Athens expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $343,956. The overall cost of living runs about 8% below the national average. Set against a $74,887 median income, cost of living beats 29% of metro areas.
Is Athens safe?
Yes, Athens is safer than 55% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $306 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Athens?
July highs average about 94 degrees, and January highs near 58 with lows near 33. That works out to about 84 pleasant days a year, more than 44% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Athens?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Watkinsville, Bogart & Bishop, Colbert, Danielsville & Comer, and Downtown Athens. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Athens good for families?
Schools beat 25% of metro areas, crime safety beats 55%, and childcare runs $639 a month.
Is Athens good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 29% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 41% of metro areas. About 13% of workers already work from home.
Compare Athens with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Athens. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Athens 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.
Athens detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Athens: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Athens: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Athens: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Athens: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Athens 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.