Best PlacesCenter Rutland, VT Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Center Rutland, 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.
Center Rutland ranks 10,172nd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on an educated workforce by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Center Rutland
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.
Center Rutland's strengths and weaknesses
Where Center Rutland ranks high
- Educational attainmentBetter than 96% of towns
- TransitBetter than 93% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 92% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 88% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 86% of towns
Where Center Rutland ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,493 a month, better than only 4% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 9% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 14% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 15% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 29% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Center Rutland
A household needs to earn about $105,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Center Rutland home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $74,234, 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 Center Rutland's effective rate of 1.32%, 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 Center Rutland
Center Rutland 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 Center Rutland.
Who works in Center Rutland, and how
Work in Center Rutland centers on health care & social and hospitality & food. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 92%
- Work from home 5%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Center Rutland
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Center Rutland.
What the weather is like in Center Rutland, month by month
Center Rutland sees roughly 99 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 33, with lows near 14. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 33° | 23° | 14° |
| April | 57° | 44° | 33° |
| July | 83° | 71° | 59° |
| October | 63° | 51° | 41° |
Flying in and out of Center Rutland
The nearest airport, Rutland/Southern Vermont Regional, is about 6 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Bradley International, about 116 miles away.
The best schools in and around Center Rutland
Schools across Center Rutland average a B+, better than 80% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Whitehall Elementary SchoolB+ · 55% proficient
- Mary J Tanner Primary SchoolB− · 40% proficient
Top middle schools
- Rutland Middle SchoolD− · 14% proficient
Top high schools
- Granville Junior-senior High SchoolA− · 65% proficient
- Whitehall Junior-senior High SchoolB+ · 58% proficient
- Rutland Senior High SchoolB− · 43% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Center Rutland school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Center Rutland 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 Center Rutland against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Center Rutland
Is Center Rutland a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Center Rutland ranks 10,172nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on an educated workforce, transit, and clean air, and lowest on childcare costs and an overheated housing market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Center Rutland expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $375,707. The overall cost of living runs about 4% below the national average. Set against a $74,234 median income, cost of living beats 71% of towns.
Is Center Rutland safe?
Center Rutland is safer than 47% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $321 per resident a year.
Compare Center Rutland with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Center Rutland. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Center Rutland 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.
Center Rutland detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Center Rutland: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Center Rutland: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Center Rutland: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Center Rutland: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Center Rutland 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.