Best PlacesElkins Park, PA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Elkins Park, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Elkins Park ranks 3,749th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on transit by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Elkins Park
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.
Elkins Park's strengths and weaknesses
Where Elkins Park ranks high
- TransitBetter than 99% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 99% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than 98% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 98% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 98% of towns
Where Elkins Park ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 4% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 6% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 61 pleasant days a year, better than only 9% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,294 a month, better than only 10% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 12% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Elkins Park
A household needs to earn about $117,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Elkins Park home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $128,507, 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 Elkins Park's effective rate of 1.88%, 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 Elkins Park
Elkins Park runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Elkins Park.
Who works in Elkins Park, and how
Work in Elkins Park centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 64%
- Work from home 21%
- Transit, walk, or bike 14%
Life in Elkins Park
Elkins Park has more parkland per resident than 87% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Elkins Park and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Elkins Park, month by month
Elkins Park sees roughly 61 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 91 degrees. January highs sit near 45, with lows near 26. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 45° | 36° | 26° |
| April | 68° | 55° | 43° |
| July | 91° | 80° | 69° |
| October | 72° | 60° | 49° |
Flying in and out of Elkins Park
Philadelphia International sits about 15 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 14.8 million passengers in 2025, with 179 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Elkins Park
Schools across Elkins Park average a B−, better than 62% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Ellwood SchA+ · 75% proficient
- Jenkintown El SchA+ · 73% proficient
- Wyncote El SchA · 63% proficient
Top middle schools
- Elkins Park SchB · 47% proficient
- Abington MsB · 44% proficient
- Cedarbrook MsB− · 40% proficient
Top high schools
- Arts Academy At Benjamin RushA− · 65% proficient
- Northeast HsA− · 65% proficient
- Jenkintown Middle/high SchoolB+ · 58% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Elkins Park school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Elkins Park 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 Elkins Park against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Elkins Park
Is Elkins Park a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Elkins Park ranks 3,749th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on transit, big-city access, and few empty homes, and lowest on property taxes and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Elkins Park expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $390,823. The overall cost of living runs about 6% below the national average. Set against a $128,507 median income, cost of living beats 96% of towns.
Is Elkins Park safe?
Elkins Park is safer than 12% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $447 per resident a year.
Compare Elkins Park with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Elkins Park. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Elkins Park 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.
Elkins Park detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Elkins Park: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Elkins Park: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Elkins Park: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Elkins Park: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Elkins Park 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.