Best PlacesCross Fork, PA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Cross Fork, 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.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Cross Fork ranks 44,682nd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on tree cover by a wide margin, and cell coverage ranks lowest.

#44,682
of 50,333 towns
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 50,333 towns
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Cross Fork

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Cross Fork area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

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.

Cross Fork's strengths and weaknesses

Top 10%Tree cover
Top 10%Low disaster risk
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Cross Fork with other towns.

Where Cross Fork ranks high

  • Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
  • Disaster safetyBetter than 93% of towns
  • Air qualityBetter than 82% of towns
  • Heat safetyBetter than 77% of towns
  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than 72% of towns

Where Cross Fork ranks low

  • Cell coverageBetter than only 4% of towns
  • Local economyBetter than only 5% of towns
  • Voter turnoutBetter than only 9% of towns
  • Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
  • Household income$48,399 median, better than only 10% of towns

What it costs to buy a home in Cross Fork

A household needs to earn about $37,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Cross Fork home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $48,399, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$37,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$862
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $137,823 home
Median rent
$817
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$703
Property tax$113
Homeowners insurance$46

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 Cross Fork's effective rate of 0.99%, 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.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Cross Fork

Cross Fork runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.

Median age
54
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
31%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.1
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1816%
18 to 3416%
35 to 4917%
50 to 6420%
65 and older31%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Cross Fork.


Who works in Cross Fork, and how

Work in Cross Fork centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.

Work from home
5%
below the national average
Unemployment
10.0%
above the national average
Job growth
−2.6%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social20%
Retail trade17%
Manufacturing12%
Transportation & warehousing7%
Public administration7%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 92%
  • Work from home 5%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 3%

Life in Cross Fork

The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Cross Fork.


What the weather is like in Cross Fork, month by month

Cross Fork sees roughly 78 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.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January36°29°23°
April61°50°41°
July84°73°64°
October64°54°45°

Flying in and out of Cross Fork

The nearest airport, State College Regional, is about 42 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Pittsburgh International, about 145 miles away.

Nearest airport
UNV
State College Regional, about 42 miles
Airport size
Nonhub
212th-busiest in the US
Average drive
61 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Cross Fork

Schools across Cross Fork average a C+, better than 50% of towns.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Cross Fork school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Cross Fork 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 Cross Fork against the other 50,332 towns.


Common questions about living in Cross Fork

Is Cross Fork a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Cross Fork ranks 44,682nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on tree cover, low disaster risk, and clean air, and lowest on cell coverage and a weak job market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Cross Fork expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $137,823. The overall cost of living runs about 17% below the national average. Set against a $48,399 median income, cost of living beats 14% of towns.

Is Cross Fork safe?

Cross Fork is safer than 15% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $412 per resident a year.


Compare Cross Fork with other towns


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Cross Fork. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Cross Fork 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.

Cross Fork detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Cross Fork: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Cross Fork: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Cross Fork: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Cross Fork: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Cross Fork detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.