Best PlacesCarlton, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Carlton, 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.
Carlton ranks 12,779th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low disaster risk by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Carlton
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.
Carlton's strengths and weaknesses
Where Carlton ranks high
- Disaster safetyBetter than 98% of towns
- School gradeB+, better than 89% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 87% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 84% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 83% of towns
Where Carlton ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 3% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 11% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 12% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 15% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Carlton
A household needs to earn about $65,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Carlton home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $83,654, 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 Carlton's effective rate of 1.97%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Carlton
Carlton 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 Carlton.
Who works in Carlton, and how
Work in Carlton centers on health care & social and construction. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 73%
- Work from home 13%
- Transit, walk, or bike 14%
Life in Carlton
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Carlton.
What the weather is like in Carlton, month by month
Carlton sees roughly 71 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 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 | 59° | 47° | 36° |
| July | 85° | 73° | 62° |
| October | 66° | 54° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Carlton
The nearest airport, Frederick Douglass/Greater Rochester International, is about 30 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Pittsburgh International, about 222 miles away.
The best schools in and around Carlton
Schools across Carlton average a B+, better than 89% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Kendall Elementary SchoolA+ · 75% proficient
- Ronald L Sodoma Elementary SchoolB+ · 53% proficient
Top middle schools
- Carl I Bergerson Middle SchoolC · 32% proficient
Top high schools
- Charles D'amico High SchoolA+ · 94% proficient
- Kendall Junior-senior High SchoolA · 78% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Carlton school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Carlton 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 Carlton against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Carlton
Is Carlton a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Carlton ranks 12,779th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low disaster risk, good schools, and heat safety, and lowest on property taxes and empty homes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Carlton expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $213,600. The overall cost of living runs about 11% below the national average. Set against a $83,654 median income, cost of living beats 73% of towns.
Is Carlton safe?
Yes, Carlton is safer than 78% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $218 per resident a year.
Compare Carlton with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Carlton. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Carlton 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.
Carlton detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Carlton: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Carlton: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Carlton: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Carlton: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Carlton 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.