Best PlacesCentre Hall, PA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Centre Hall, 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.
Centre Hall ranks 8,272nd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on fast internet by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Centre Hall
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.
Centre Hall's strengths and weaknesses
Where Centre Hall ranks high
- Internet speedBetter than 94% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 93% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 92% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 88% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 87% of towns
Where Centre Hall ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,135 a month, better than only 15% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 18% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 18% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 19% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 27% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Centre Hall
A household needs to earn about $69,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Centre Hall home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $76,137, 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 Centre Hall's effective rate of 0.90%, 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 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Centre Hall
Centre Hall 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 Centre Hall.
Who works in Centre Hall, and how
Work in Centre Hall centers on education and health care & social. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 85%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Centre Hall
Centre Hall has more parkland per resident than 99% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Centre Hall and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Centre Hall, month by month
Centre Hall sees roughly 82 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 36, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 36° | 29° | 23° |
| April | 61° | 50° | 41° |
| July | 84° | 73° | 64° |
| October | 64° | 54° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Centre Hall
The nearest airport, State College Regional, is about 8 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall, about 126 miles away.
The best schools in and around Centre Hall
Schools across Centre Hall average an A−, better than 87% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Centre Hall-potter El SchA+ · 95% proficient
- Mount Nittany El SchA+ · 80% proficient
- Penns Valley Area El And Intrmd SchA · 70% proficient
Top middle schools
- Mount Nittany MsA− · 55% proficient
- Bellefonte Area MsB · 46% proficient
Top high schools
- State College Area HsA+ · 80% proficient
- Bellefonte Area HsA+ · 80% proficient
- Penns Valley Area JshsB+ · 55% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Centre Hall school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Centre Hall 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 Centre Hall against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Centre Hall
Is Centre Hall a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Centre Hall ranks 8,272nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on fast internet, cell coverage, and low disaster risk, and lowest on childcare costs and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Centre Hall expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $260,946. The overall cost of living runs about 2% below the national average. Set against a $76,137 median income, cost of living beats 43% of towns.
Is Centre Hall safe?
Yes, Centre Hall is safer than 87% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $167 per resident a year.
Compare Centre Hall with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Centre Hall. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Centre Hall 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.
Centre Hall detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Centre Hall: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Centre Hall: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Centre Hall: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Centre Hall: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Centre Hall 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.