Best PlacesCatskill, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Catskill, 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.
Catskill ranks 23,536th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on walkability by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Catskill
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.
Catskill's strengths and weaknesses
Where Catskill ranks high
- WalkabilityBetter than 94% of towns
- TransitBetter than 92% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 90% of towns
- BikingBetter than 89% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 88% of towns
Where Catskill ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 3% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 8% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 10% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 10% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 15% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Catskill
A household needs to earn about $79,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Catskill home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $70,492, so buying stretches a typical household.
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 Catskill's effective rate of 1.53%, 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 Catskill
Catskill 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 Catskill.
Who works in Catskill, and how
Work in Catskill centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 78%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 9%
Life in Catskill
Catskill has more restaurants and bars per resident than 89% of towns and more parkland per resident than 92% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Catskill and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Catskill, month by month
Catskill sees roughly 96 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 37, with lows near 21. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 37° | 28° | 21° |
| April | 61° | 48° | 38° |
| July | 85° | 73° | 62° |
| October | 65° | 53° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Catskill
The nearest airport, Albany International, is about 37 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Bradley International, about 65 miles away.
The best schools in and around Catskill
Schools across Catskill average a B+, better than 86% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Catskill Elementary SchoolA · 65% proficient
- Edward J Arthur Elementary SchoolA− · 60% proficient
- Germantown Elementary SchoolB+ · 55% proficient
Top middle schools
- Catskill Middle SchoolC · 33% proficient
- Coxsackie-athens Middle SchoolC− · 30% proficient
- Cairo-durham Middle SchoolD · 23% proficient
Top high schools
- Cairo-durham High SchoolA+ · 90% proficient
- Coxsackie-athens High SchoolA+ · 85% proficient
- Catskill Senior High SchoolA+ · 85% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Catskill school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Catskill 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 Catskill against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Catskill
Is Catskill a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Catskill ranks 23,536th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on walkability, transit, and big-city access, and lowest on an overheated housing market 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 Catskill expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $273,433. The overall cost of living runs about 6% above the national average. Set against a $70,492 median income, cost of living beats 29% of towns.
Is Catskill safe?
Yes, Catskill is safer than 59% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $283 per resident a year.
Compare Catskill with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Catskill. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Catskill 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.
Catskill detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Catskill: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Catskill: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Catskill: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Catskill: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Catskill 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.