Best PlacesDale Summit, PA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Dale Summit, 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.
Dale Summit ranks 15,339th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on heat safety by a wide margin, and thin health care access ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Dale Summit
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.
Dale Summit's strengths and weaknesses
Where Dale Summit ranks high
- Heat safetyBetter than 99% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 98% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 97% of towns
- School gradeA−, better than 90% of towns
- BikingBetter than 85% of towns
Where Dale Summit ranks low
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 3% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 4% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 7% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,135 a month, better than only 15% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Dale Summit
A household needs to earn about $112,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Dale Summit home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $77,866, so buying stretches a typical household.
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 Dale Summit's effective rate of 1.03%, 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.
Who lives in Dale Summit
Dale Summit's age mix sits close to the national median, 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 Dale Summit.
Life in Dale Summit
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Dale Summit.
What the weather is like in Dale Summit, month by month
Dale Summit sees roughly 85 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 Dale Summit
The nearest airport, State College Regional, is about 4 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall, about 130 miles away.
The best schools in and around Dale Summit
Schools across Dale Summit average an A−, better than 90% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Spring Creek El SchA+ · 95% proficient
- Benner El SchA · 70% proficient
- Pleasant Gap El SchA · 63% 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
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Dale Summit school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Dale Summit 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 Dale Summit against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Dale Summit
Is Dale Summit a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Dale Summit ranks 15,339th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on heat safety, population health, and low disaster risk, and lowest on thin health care access and education levels. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Dale Summit expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $415,817. The overall cost of living runs about 7% below the national average. Set against a $77,866 median income, cost of living beats 30% of towns.
Is Dale Summit safe?
Yes, Dale Summit is safer than 69% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $209 per resident a year.
Compare Dale Summit with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Dale Summit. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Dale Summit 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.
Dale Summit detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Dale Summit: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Dale Summit: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Dale Summit: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Dale Summit: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Dale Summit 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.