Best PlacesButler, PA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Butler, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Butler ranks 1,169th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low disaster risk by a wide margin, and cell coverage ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Butler
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.
Butler's strengths and weaknesses
Where Butler ranks high
- Disaster safetyBetter than 98% of cities
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 92% of cities
- Heat safetyBetter than 83% of cities
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 82% of cities
- School gradeA−, better than 82% of cities
Where Butler ranks low
- Cell coverageBetter than only 9% of cities
- BikingBetter than only 11% of cities
- TransitBetter than only 13% of cities
- State infrastructureBetter than only 14% of cities
- Internet speedBetter than only 15% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Butler
A household needs to earn about $58,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Butler home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $72,651, 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 Butler's effective rate of 1.14%, 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 Butler
Butler 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 Butler.
Who works in Butler, and how
Work in Butler centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Butler
Butler has more parkland per resident than 87% of cities. That concentrates in some parts of Butler and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Butler, month by month
Butler sees roughly 74 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 38, with lows near 20. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 38° | 29° | 20° |
| April | 63° | 50° | 39° |
| July | 85° | 73° | 61° |
| October | 66° | 54° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Butler
Pittsburgh International sits about 31 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 4.8 million passengers in 2025, with 104 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Butler
Schools across Butler average an A−, better than 82% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Moraine El SchA+ · 95% proficient
- Ehrman Crest El SchA+ · 90% proficient
- Knoch Intermediate El SchA+ · 90% proficient
Top middle schools
- Mars Area Centennial SchA · 67% proficient
- Ryan Gloyer MsA · 65% proficient
- Slippery Rock Area MsA · 65% proficient
Top high schools
- Mars Area ShsA+ · 87% proficient
- Seneca Valley HsA · 76% proficient
- Knoch HsA · 70% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Butler school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Butler 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 Butler against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Butler suits
Common questions about living in Butler
Is Butler a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Butler ranks 1,169th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on low disaster risk, a stable housing market, and heat safety, and lowest on cell coverage and biking. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Butler expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $210,372. The overall cost of living runs about 9% below the national average. Set against a $72,651 median income, cost of living beats 32% of cities.
Is Butler safe?
Yes, Butler is safer than 64% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $259 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Butler?
July highs average about 85 degrees, and January highs near 38 with lows near 20. That works out to about 74 pleasant days a year, more than 35% of cities.
Is Butler good for families?
Schools beat 82% of cities, crime safety beats 64%, and childcare runs $960 a month.
Compare Butler with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Butler. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Butler 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.
Butler detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Butler: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Butler: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Butler: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Butler: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Butler 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.