Best PlacesCarbondale, OH Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Carbondale, 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.
Carbondale ranks 35,534th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cheap car insurance by a wide margin, and internet speeds rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Carbondale
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.
Carbondale's strengths and weaknesses
Where Carbondale ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 96% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 91% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 83% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 82% of towns
Where Carbondale ranks low
- Internet speedBetter than only 5% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 11% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,273 a month, better than only 11% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 63 pleasant days a year, better than only 13% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 17% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Carbondale
A household needs to earn about $42,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Carbondale home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $56,831, 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 Carbondale's effective rate of 1.08%, 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 5 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Carbondale
Carbondale 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 Carbondale.
Who works in Carbondale, and how
Work in Carbondale centers on manufacturing and education. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 91%
- Work from home 2%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Carbondale
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Carbondale.
What the weather is like in Carbondale, month by month
Carbondale sees roughly 63 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 43, with lows near 22. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 43° | 32° | 22° |
| April | 69° | 54° | 40° |
| July | 88° | 75° | 64° |
| October | 71° | 56° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Carbondale
The nearest airport, Mid-Ohio Valley Regional, is about 30 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is John Glenn Columbus International, about 64 miles away.
The best schools in and around Carbondale
Schools across Carbondale average a C+, better than 50% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Amesville Elementary SchoolC− · 28% proficient
Top middle schools
- Federal Hocking Middle SchoolC · 33% proficient
Top high schools
- Federal Hocking High SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Carbondale school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Carbondale 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 Carbondale against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Carbondale
Is Carbondale a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Carbondale ranks 35,534th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, tree cover, and low disaster risk, and lowest on internet speeds and cell coverage. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Carbondale expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $152,943. The overall cost of living runs about 8% below the national average. Set against a $56,831 median income, cost of living beats 18% of towns.
Is Carbondale safe?
Carbondale is safer than 17% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $408 per resident a year.
Compare Carbondale with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Carbondale. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Carbondale 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.
Carbondale detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Carbondale: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Carbondale: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Carbondale: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Carbondale: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Carbondale 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.