Best PlacesCrystal Spring, PA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Crystal Spring, 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

Crystal Spring ranks 31,949th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on fast internet by a wide margin, and long commutes are the weak spot.

#31,949
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 Crystal Spring

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Crystal Spring 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.

Crystal Spring's strengths and weaknesses

Top 5%Fast internet
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Crystal Spring with other towns.

Where Crystal Spring ranks high

  • Internet speedBetter than 97% of towns
  • Tree shadeBetter than 85% of towns
  • Big-city accessBetter than 84% of towns
  • Disaster safetyBetter than 82% of towns
  • Heat safetyBetter than 80% of towns

Where Crystal Spring ranks low

  • Short commute36.5 minutes each way, better than only 10% of towns
  • QuietBetter than only 19% of towns
  • State infrastructureBetter than only 19% of towns
  • Local economyBetter than only 20% of towns
  • Household income$57,639 median, better than only 23% of towns

What it costs to buy a home in Crystal Spring

A household needs to earn about $49,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Crystal Spring home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $57,639, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$49,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$1,151
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $182,800 home
Median rent
$677
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$932
Property tax$158
Homeowners insurance$61

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 Crystal Spring's effective rate of 1.04%, 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.

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

Who lives in Crystal Spring

Crystal Spring runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.

Median age
53
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
25%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.1
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1815%
18 to 3418%
35 to 4920%
50 to 6422%
65 and older25%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Crystal Spring.


Who works in Crystal Spring, and how

Work in Crystal Spring centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.

Work from home
12%
below the national average
Unemployment
3.9%
below the national average
Job growth
−1.7%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Manufacturing19%
Health care & social15%
Education8%
Transportation & warehousing8%
Other services8%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 86%
  • Work from home 12%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 2%

Life in Crystal Spring

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


What the weather is like in Crystal Spring, month by month

Crystal Spring sees roughly 77 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 39, with lows near 21. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January39°30°21°
April65°51°39°
July86°73°62°
October68°55°44°

Flying in and out of Crystal Spring

The nearest airport, Altoona/Blair County, is about 24 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Washington Dulles International, about 81 miles away.

Nearest airport
AOO
Altoona/Blair County, about 24 miles
Airport size
Nonprimary
5 nonstop destinations
Average drive
34 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Crystal Spring

Schools across Crystal Spring average a B+, better than 77% 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 Crystal Spring school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Crystal Spring 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 Crystal Spring against the other 50,332 towns.


Common questions about living in Crystal Spring

Is Crystal Spring a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Crystal Spring ranks 31,949th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on fast internet, tree cover, and big-city access, and lowest on long commutes and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Crystal Spring expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $182,800. The overall cost of living runs about 13% below the national average. Set against a $57,639 median income, cost of living beats 25% of towns.

Is Crystal Spring safe?

Yes, Crystal Spring is safer than 74% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $195 per resident a year.


Compare Crystal Spring with other towns


Sources and methodology

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

Crystal Spring detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

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

Crystal Spring 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.