Best PlacesAva, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Ava, 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.
Ava ranks 6,719th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low crime by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Ava
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.
Ava's strengths and weaknesses
Where Ava ranks high
- Crime safetyBetter than 98% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 92% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 90% of towns
- TransitBetter than 88% of towns
- School gradeB+, better than 86% of towns
Where Ava ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 8% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 14% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 15% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 65 pleasant days a year, better than only 16% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,088 a month, better than only 18% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Ava
A household needs to earn about $59,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Ava home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $87,298, 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 Ava's effective rate of 1.59%, 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 Ava
Ava runs older than the country, 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 Ava.
Who works in Ava, and how
Work in Ava centers on retail trade and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 93%
- Work from home 6%
- Transit, walk, or bike 1%
Life in Ava
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Ava.
What the weather is like in Ava, month by month
Ava sees roughly 65 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 34, with lows near 15. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 34° | 24° | 15° |
| April | 59° | 45° | 33° |
| July | 85° | 72° | 60° |
| October | 65° | 52° | 41° |
Flying in and out of Ava
The nearest airport, Syracuse Hancock International, is about 37 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Bradley International, about 172 miles away.
The best schools in and around Ava
Schools across Ava average a B+, better than 86% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Holland Patent Elementary SchoolA− · 56% proficient
- Stokes Elementary SchoolB · 48% proficient
- West Leyden Elementary SchoolB− · 43% proficient
Top middle schools
- Holland Patent Middle SchoolB · 45% proficient
- Adirondack Middle SchoolB− · 40% proficient
- Lyndon H Strough Middle SchoolB− · 40% proficient
Top high schools
- Holland Patent Central High SchoolA+ · 94% proficient
- Adirondack High SchoolA+ · 94% proficient
- Camden Senior High SchoolA+ · 90% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Ava school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Ava 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 Ava against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Ava
Is Ava a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Ava ranks 6,719th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low crime, clean air, and low disaster risk, and lowest on property taxes and car insurance costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Ava expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $205,151. The overall cost of living runs about 10% below the national average. Set against a $87,298 median income, cost of living beats 80% of towns.
Is Ava safe?
Yes, Ava is safer than 98% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $138 per resident a year.
Compare Ava with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Ava. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Ava 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.
Ava detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Ava: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Ava: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Ava: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Ava: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Ava 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.
- 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.