Best PlacesCorning, IA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Corning, 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.
Corning ranks 12,864th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on walkability by a wide margin, and internet speeds rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Corning
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.
Corning's strengths and weaknesses
Where Corning ranks high
- WalkabilityBetter than 99% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than 94% of towns
- Short commute19.0 minutes each way, better than 91% of towns
- BikingBetter than 83% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 82% of towns
Where Corning ranks low
- Internet speedBetter than only 25% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 26% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 32% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 33% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 34% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Corning
A household needs to earn about $31,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Corning home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $65,966, 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 Corning's effective rate of 0.95%, 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 5 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Corning
Corning 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 Corning.
Who works in Corning, and how
Work in Corning centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 88%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Corning
Corning has more restaurants and bars per resident than 90% of towns and more parkland per resident than 99% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Corning and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Corning, month by month
Corning sees roughly 92 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 32, with lows near 16. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 32° | 23° | 16° |
| April | 63° | 50° | 40° |
| July | 85° | 75° | 66° |
| October | 65° | 53° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Corning
Eppley Airfield sits about 64 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 2.6 million passengers in 2025, with 73 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Corning
Schools across Corning average an A−, better than 81% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Lenox Elementary SchoolA · 70% proficient
- Garfield Elementary SchoolA− · 60% proficient
- Corning Elementary SchoolA− · 58% proficient
Top middle schools
- Southwest Valley Middle SchoolA− · 57% proficient
- Cam Middle SchoolA− · 53% proficient
Top high schools
- Lenox High SchoolA− · 63% proficient
- Clarinda High SchoolB+ · 55% proficient
- Southwest Valley High SchoolB · 50% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Corning school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Corning 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 Corning against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Corning
Is Corning a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Corning ranks 12,864th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on walkability, state finances, and short commutes, and lowest on internet speeds and disaster risk. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Corning expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $115,894. The overall cost of living runs about 24% below the national average. Set against a $65,966 median income, cost of living beats 68% of towns.
Is Corning safe?
Corning is safer than 32% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $353 per resident a year.
Compare Corning with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Corning. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Corning 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.
Corning detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Corning: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Corning: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Corning: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Corning: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Corning 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.