Best PlacesColwyn, PA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Colwyn, 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.
Colwyn ranks 48,656th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on walkability by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Colwyn
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.
Colwyn's strengths and weaknesses
Where Colwyn ranks high
- WalkabilityBetter than 99% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 99% of towns
- TransitBetter than 98% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 98% of towns
- BikingBetter than 86% of towns
Where Colwyn ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 1% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 1% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 3% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 5% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 6% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Colwyn
A household needs to earn about $44,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Colwyn home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $44,913, 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 Colwyn's effective rate of 2.51%, 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 3 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Colwyn
Colwyn runs younger than the country, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Colwyn.
Who works in Colwyn, and how
Work in Colwyn centers on health care & social and transportation & warehousing. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 66%
- Work from home 5%
- Transit, walk, or bike 29%
Life in Colwyn
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Colwyn.
What the weather is like in Colwyn, month by month
Colwyn sees roughly 66 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 91 degrees. January highs sit near 45, with lows near 27. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 45° | 36° | 27° |
| April | 68° | 56° | 44° |
| July | 91° | 80° | 71° |
| October | 72° | 61° | 51° |
Flying in and out of Colwyn
Philadelphia International sits about 3 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 14.8 million passengers in 2025, with 179 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Colwyn
Schools across Colwyn average a D+, better than 23% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Colwyn El SchA+ · 75% proficient
- Ardmore Avenue SchC− · 30% proficient
- Walnut Street El SchD+ · 25% proficient
Top middle schools
- Penn Wood MsD · 20% proficient
Top high schools
- Penn Wood HsF · 10% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Colwyn school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Colwyn 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 Colwyn against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Colwyn
Is Colwyn a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Colwyn ranks 48,656th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on walkability, big-city access, and transit, and lowest on property taxes and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Colwyn expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $135,307. The overall cost of living runs about 10% below the national average. Set against a $44,913 median income, cost of living beats 3% of towns.
Is Colwyn safe?
Colwyn is safer than 6% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $567 per resident a year.
Compare Colwyn with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Colwyn. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Colwyn 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.
Colwyn detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Colwyn: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Colwyn: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Colwyn: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Colwyn: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Colwyn 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.