Best PlacesBinghamton, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Binghamton 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
Binghamton ranks 217th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on property taxes and a weak job market. It does better on heat safety, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Binghamton 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 Binghamton
The towns and districts of the Binghamton 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.
Vestal
More adults hold degrees, biking is better, and tree cover is thicker.
Apalachin, Waverly & Nichols
Crime runs lower and prices have run up less.
Port Crane & Chenango Forks
More households have young kids, though streets are more car-dependent.
Owego
Disaster risk is higher and transit reaches fewer jobs.
Whitney Point
It is quieter, though advertised internet is slower.
Johnson City, Endicott & Endwell
Fewer residents vote and local pay stretches less far.
Newark Valley, Candor & Spencer
Fewer homes sit empty, though commutes are longer.
Conklin, Kirkwood & Windsor
Scores close to Newark Valley, Candor & Spencer, except that health care is harder to reach here.
Downtown Binghamton
Incomes run lower and schools score lower.
Binghamton shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 4% of the country and others in the top 2%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Binghamton's strengths and weaknesses
Binghamton lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Heat safety, good schools, and clean air carry most of that.
The one real hole is property taxes, near the bottom of the country. A weak job market and car insurance costs also cost it ground. Cost swings more from one part of Binghamton to another than it does between Binghamton and its neighbors, which the map below shows.
Where Binghamton ranks high
- Heat safetyBetter than 94% of metro areas
- School gradeB+, better than 93% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than 89% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than 88% of metro areas
- TransitBetter than 82% of metro areas
Where Binghamton ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- Local economyBetter than only 9% of metro areas
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 15% of metro areas
- State infrastructureBetter than only 15% of metro areas
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 16% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Binghamton
A household needs to earn about $52,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Binghamton home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $72,616, 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 Binghamton's effective rate of 2.27%, 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 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Binghamton
Binghamton'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 Binghamton.
Who works in Binghamton, and how
Work in Binghamton centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 79%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 11%
Life in Binghamton
Binghamton has more restaurants and bars per resident than 96% of metro areas and more parkland per resident than 74% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Binghamton and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Binghamton growing, and who is moving in?
Binghamton has lost about 1% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from New York, NY.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Binghamton go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Binghamton, month by month
Binghamton sees roughly 79 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 degrees. January highs sit near 33, with lows near 17. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 33° | 25° | 17° |
| April | 58° | 45° | 34° |
| July | 82° | 70° | 60° |
| October | 62° | 51° | 42° |
Flying in and out of Binghamton
The nearest airport, Greater Binghamton/Edwin A Link Field, is about 8 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Newark Liberty International, about 133 miles away.
The best schools in and around Binghamton
Schools across Binghamton average a B+, better than 93% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Floyd Bell Elementary SchoolA+ · 78% proficient
- African Road Elementary SchoolA+ · 78% proficient
- Vestal Hills Elementary SchoolA+ · 75% proficient
Top middle schools
- Vestal Middle SchoolA · 60% proficient
- Tioughnioga Riverside AcademyA− · 54% proficient
- Richard T Stank Middle SchoolA− · 53% proficient
Top high schools
- Vestal Senior High SchoolA+ · 99% proficient
- Maine-endwell Senior High SchoolA+ · 98% proficient
- Johnson City Senior High SchoolA+ · 98% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Binghamton school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Binghamton 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 Binghamton against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Binghamton suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 10% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Binghamton
Is Binghamton a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Binghamton ranks 217th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on heat safety, good schools, and clean air, and lowest on property taxes and a weak job market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Binghamton expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $164,190. The overall cost of living runs about 8% below the national average. Set against a $72,616 median income, cost of living beats 22% of metro areas.
Is Binghamton safe?
Yes, Binghamton is safer than 59% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $326 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Binghamton?
July highs average about 82 degrees, and January highs near 33 with lows near 17. That works out to about 79 pleasant days a year, more than 38% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Binghamton?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Vestal, Apalachin, Waverly & Nichols, and Port Crane & Chenango Forks. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Binghamton good for families?
Schools beat 93% of metro areas, crime safety beats 59%, and childcare runs $1,088 a month.
Is Binghamton good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 22% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 79% of metro areas. About 10% of workers already work from home.
Compare Binghamton with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Binghamton. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Binghamton 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.
Binghamton detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Binghamton: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Binghamton: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Binghamton: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Binghamton: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Binghamton 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.