Best PlacesBuffalo, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Buffalo 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 Andre Carrotflower, CC BY-SA 4.0, via commons
Buffalo ranks 103rd of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on property taxes and car insurance costs. It does better on low disaster risk, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Buffalo 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 Buffalo
The towns and districts of the Buffalo 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.
Orchard Park, East Aurora & Elma
Crime runs lower, incomes run higher, and local pay stretches further.
Lockport & East Amherst
Streets are more car-dependent and biking is worse.
Lancaster, DePew & Alden
Schools score higher and more residents vote.
Getzville & Wilson
Fewer homes sit empty, though fewer households have young kids.
Lakeview, Derby & Angola
Tree cover is thicker, though transit reaches fewer jobs.
Niagara Falls & North Tonawanda
Homes cost less, though fewer adults hold degrees.
Hamburg, West Seneca & Lackawanna
It is noisier.
Kenmore
Advertised internet is faster, though health care is harder to reach.
Downtown Buffalo
Buffalo 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.
Buffalo's strengths and weaknesses
Buffalo lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Low disaster risk is the standout, in the top 1% of metro areas. Walkability and good schools follow.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Property taxes, car insurance costs, and state infrastructure hold the score down. Cost swings more from one part of Buffalo to another than it does between Buffalo and its neighbors, which the map below shows.
Where Buffalo ranks high
- Disaster safetyBetter than 99% of metro areas
- WalkabilityBetter than 95% of metro areas
- School gradeB, better than 91% of metro areas
- Healthcare accessBetter than 90% of metro areas
- TransitBetter than 90% of metro areas
Where Buffalo ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 6% of metro areas
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 12% of metro areas
- State infrastructureBetter than only 15% of metro areas
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 16% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$1,275 a month, better than only 17% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Buffalo
A household needs to earn about $71,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Buffalo home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $80,502, 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 Buffalo's effective rate of 1.69%, 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 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Buffalo
Buffalo 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 Buffalo.
Who works in Buffalo, and how
Work in Buffalo 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 79%
- Work from home 13%
- Transit, walk, or bike 8%
Life in Buffalo
Buffalo has more restaurants and bars per resident than 98% of metro areas and more parkland per resident than 99% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Buffalo and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Buffalo growing, and who is moving in?
Buffalo has grown about 2% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from New York, NY.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Buffalo go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Buffalo, month by month
Buffalo sees roughly 77 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 36, with lows near 20. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 36° | 28° | 20° |
| April | 58° | 46° | 36° |
| July | 84° | 74° | 63° |
| October | 65° | 54° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Buffalo
The nearest airport, Buffalo Niagara International, is about 5 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Pittsburgh International, about 183 miles away.
The best schools in and around Buffalo
Schools across Buffalo average a B, better than 91% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Sheridan Hill Elementary SchoolA+ · 91% proficient
- Errick Road Elementary SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
- Harris Hill Elementary SchoolA+ · 85% proficient
Top middle schools
- Transit Middle SchoolA+ · 73% proficient
- William Street SchoolA+ · 69% proficient
- Lewiston Porter Middle SchoolA+ · 68% proficient
Top high schools
- Williamsville East High SchoolA+ · 100% proficient
- Orchard Park High SchoolA+ · 100% proficient
- Clarence Senior High SchoolA+ · 100% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Buffalo school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Buffalo 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 Buffalo against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Buffalo suits
Common questions about living in Buffalo
Is Buffalo a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Buffalo ranks 103rd of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on low disaster risk, walkability, and good schools, 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 Buffalo expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $240,813. The overall cost of living runs about 10% below the national average. Set against a $80,502 median income, cost of living beats 58% of metro areas.
Is Buffalo safe?
Yes, Buffalo is safer than 61% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $321 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Buffalo?
July highs average about 84 degrees, and January highs near 36 with lows near 20. That works out to about 77 pleasant days a year, more than 35% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Buffalo?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Orchard Park, East Aurora & Elma, Lockport & East Amherst, and Lancaster, DePew & Alden. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Buffalo good for families?
Schools beat 91% of metro areas, crime safety beats 61%, and childcare runs $1,275 a month.
Is Buffalo good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 58% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 29% of metro areas. About 13% of workers already work from home.
Compare Buffalo with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Buffalo. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Buffalo 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.
Buffalo detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Buffalo: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Buffalo: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Buffalo: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Buffalo: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Buffalo 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.