Best PlacesDrakes Mills, PA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Drakes Mills, 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.
Drakes Mills ranks 22,341st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on heat safety by a wide margin, and internet speeds rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Drakes Mills
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.
Drakes Mills' strengths and weaknesses
Where Drakes Mills ranks high
- Heat safetyBetter than 95% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 84% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 82% of towns
- School gradeB+, better than 81% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than 80% of towns
Where Drakes Mills ranks low
- Internet speedBetter than only 18% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 19% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 22% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 24% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 27% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Drakes Mills
A household needs to earn about $55,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Drakes Mills home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $77,171, 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 Drakes Mills' effective rate of 1.15%, 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 Drakes Mills
Drakes Mills runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Drakes Mills.
Who works in Drakes Mills, and how
Work in Drakes Mills centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 88%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Drakes Mills
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Drakes Mills.
What the weather is like in Drakes Mills, month by month
Drakes Mills sees roughly 78 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 35, with lows near 20. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 35° | 27° | 20° |
| April | 60° | 47° | 36° |
| July | 83° | 71° | 61° |
| October | 64° | 53° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Drakes Mills
The nearest airport, Erie International/Tom Ridge Field, is about 18 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Pittsburgh International, about 93 miles away.
The best schools in and around Drakes Mills
Schools across Drakes Mills average a B+, better than 81% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Cambridge Springs El SchA+ · 80% proficient
- Edinboro El SchA · 72% proficient
Top middle schools
- James W Parker MsA− · 56% proficient
Top high schools
- General Mclane HsA · 72% proficient
- Cambridge Springs JshsC+ · 40% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Drakes Mills school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Drakes Mills 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 Drakes Mills against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Drakes Mills
Is Drakes Mills a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Drakes Mills ranks 22,341st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on heat safety, population health, and health care access, and lowest on internet speeds and state infrastructure. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Drakes Mills expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $202,486. The overall cost of living runs about 10% below the national average. Set against a $77,171 median income, cost of living beats 56% of towns.
Is Drakes Mills safe?
Drakes Mills is safer than 38% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $288 per resident a year.
Compare Drakes Mills with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Drakes Mills. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Drakes Mills 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.
Drakes Mills detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Drakes Mills: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Drakes Mills: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Drakes Mills: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Drakes Mills: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Drakes Mills 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.