Best PlacesDamascus, PA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Damascus, 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.
Damascus ranks 17,557th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on good schools by a wide margin, and long commutes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Damascus
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.
Damascus' strengths and weaknesses
Where Damascus ranks high
- School gradeA+, better than 98% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 92% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 91% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 87% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 84% of towns
Where Damascus ranks low
- Short commute49.0 minutes each way, better than only 1% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 3% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 16% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Damascus
A household needs to earn about $92,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Damascus home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $73,211, 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 Damascus' effective rate of 1.28%, 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 Damascus
Damascus 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 Damascus.
Who works in Damascus, and how
Work in Damascus centers on health care & social and public administration. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 89%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Damascus
Damascus has more restaurants and bars per resident than 99% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Damascus and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Damascus, month by month
Damascus sees roughly 69 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 35, with lows near 17. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 35° | 26° | 17° |
| April | 58° | 45° | 34° |
| July | 83° | 71° | 59° |
| October | 63° | 51° | 41° |
Flying in and out of Damascus
The nearest airport, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International, is about 42 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Newark Liberty International, about 87 miles away.
The best schools in and around Damascus
Schools across Damascus average an A+, better than 98% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Damascus Area SchA+ · 80% proficient
Top high schools
- Honesdale HsA · 75% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Damascus school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Damascus 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 Damascus against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Damascus
Is Damascus a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Damascus ranks 17,557th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on good schools, big-city access, and health care access, and lowest on long commutes and an overheated housing market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Damascus expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $330,628. The overall cost of living runs about 1% above the national average. Set against a $73,211 median income, cost of living beats 51% of towns.
Is Damascus safe?
Yes, Damascus is safer than 74% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $198 per resident a year.
Compare Damascus with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Damascus. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Damascus 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.
Damascus detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Damascus: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Damascus: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Damascus: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Damascus: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Damascus 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.