Best PlacesEllicottville, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Ellicottville, 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.
Ellicottville ranks 26,723rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on health care access by a wide margin, and car insurance costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Ellicottville
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.
Ellicottville's strengths and weaknesses
Where Ellicottville ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 95% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 94% of towns
- School gradeA, better than 92% of towns
- Short commute19.7 minutes each way, better than 89% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 87% of towns
Where Ellicottville ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 10% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 12% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 15% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Ellicottville
A household needs to earn about $72,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Ellicottville home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $73,319, 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 Ellicottville's effective rate of 1.42%, 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 Ellicottville
Ellicottville 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 Ellicottville.
Who works in Ellicottville, and how
Work in Ellicottville centers on manufacturing and construction. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 7%
- Transit, walk, or bike 9%
Life in Ellicottville
Ellicottville has more restaurants and bars per resident than 97% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Ellicottville and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Ellicottville, month by month
Ellicottville sees roughly 94 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 76 degrees. January highs sit near 29, with lows near 17. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 29° | 22° | 17° |
| April | 52° | 42° | 34° |
| July | 76° | 67° | 59° |
| October | 58° | 48° | 42° |
Flying in and out of Ellicottville
The nearest airport, Bradford Regional, is about 34 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Pittsburgh International, about 149 miles away.
The best schools in and around Ellicottville
Schools across Ellicottville average an A, better than 92% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Franklinville Elementary SchoolA+ · 80% proficient
- Ellicottville Elementary SchoolA+ · 75% proficient
Top middle schools
- Seneca Intermediate SchoolB · 47% proficient
- Cattaraugus-little Valley Middle SchoolC · 35% proficient
Top high schools
- Cuba-rushford High SchoolA+ · 95% proficient
- Cattaraugus-little Valley High SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
- Ellicottville Middle School High SchoolA · 73% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Ellicottville school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Ellicottville 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 Ellicottville against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Ellicottville
Is Ellicottville a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Ellicottville ranks 26,723rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on health care access, heat safety, and good schools, and lowest on car insurance costs and empty homes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Ellicottville expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $253,200. The overall cost of living runs about 7% above the national average. Set against a $73,319 median income, cost of living beats 30% of towns.
Is Ellicottville safe?
Ellicottville is safer than 30% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $402 per resident a year.
Compare Ellicottville with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Ellicottville. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Ellicottville 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.
Ellicottville detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Ellicottville: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Ellicottville: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Ellicottville: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Ellicottville: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Ellicottville 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.