Best PlacesDefiance, PA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Defiance, 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.
Defiance ranks 28,212th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. Cell coverage pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on a stable housing market.
The best neighborhoods in Defiance
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.
Defiance's strengths and weaknesses
Where Defiance ranks high
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 89% of towns
- School gradeA−, better than 86% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 86% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 86% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 81% of towns
Where Defiance ranks low
- Cell coverageBetter than only 6% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 8% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 15% of towns
- Short commute34.5 minutes each way, better than only 15% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 15% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Defiance
A household needs to earn about $22,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Defiance home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $67,679, 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 Defiance's effective rate of 0.76%, 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 3 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Defiance
Defiance runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Defiance.
Who works in Defiance, and how
Work in Defiance centers on manufacturing and transportation & warehousing. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 96%
- Work from home 2%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Defiance
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Defiance.
What the weather is like in Defiance, month by month
Defiance sees roughly 74 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.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 39° | 30° | 21° |
| April | 65° | 51° | 39° |
| July | 86° | 73° | 62° |
| October | 68° | 55° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Defiance
The nearest airport, Altoona/Blair County, is about 10 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Washington Dulles International, about 94 miles away.
The best schools in and around Defiance
Schools across Defiance average an A−, better than 86% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Tussey Mountain ElA+ · 80% proficient
Top middle schools
- Tussey Mountain MsB− · 40% proficient
Top high schools
- Tussey Mountain HsA− · 60% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Defiance school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Defiance 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 Defiance against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Defiance
Is Defiance a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Defiance ranks 28,212th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on a stable housing market, good schools, and tree cover, and lowest on cell coverage and thin health care access. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Defiance expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $84,600. The overall cost of living runs about 18% below the national average. Set against a $67,679 median income, cost of living beats 50% of towns.
Is Defiance safe?
Defiance is safer than 28% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $324 per resident a year.
Compare Defiance with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Defiance. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Defiance 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.
Defiance detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Defiance: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Defiance: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Defiance: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Defiance: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Defiance 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.