Best PlacesElmira, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Elmira metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Andre Carrotflower, CC BY-SA 4.0, via commons
Elmira ranks 255th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on property taxes and internet speeds. It does better on clean air, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Elmira metro
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.
The best areas in Elmira
The towns and districts of the Elmira metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Horseheads
Fewer homes sit empty, more adults hold degrees, and crime runs lower.
West Elmira & Pine City
It is quieter, though fewer households have young kids.
Downtown Elmira
Streets are more walkable, though fewer residents vote.
Southport
Incomes run lower and tree cover is thinner.
Scores across Elmira run from about the 4th to the 87th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Elmira's strengths and weaknesses
Elmira lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Clean air, short commutes, and a stable housing market carry most of that.
The one real hole is property taxes, near the bottom of the country. Internet speeds and a weak job market also cost it ground. Cost swings more from one part of Elmira to another than it does between Elmira and its neighbors, which the map below shows.
Where Elmira ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 88% of metro areas
- Short commute20.1 minutes each way, better than 85% of metro areas
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 85% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than 83% of metro areas
- School gradeB−, better than 81% of metro areas
Where Elmira ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than only 3% of metro areas
- Local economyBetter than only 7% of metro areas
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 13% of metro areas
- State infrastructureBetter than only 15% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Elmira
A household needs to earn about $46,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Elmira home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $67,418, 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 Elmira's effective rate of 2.13%, 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 5 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Elmira
Elmira 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 Elmira.
Who works in Elmira, and how
Work in Elmira centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 9%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Elmira
Elmira has more restaurants and bars per resident than 92% of metro areas and more parkland per resident than 83% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Elmira and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Elmira growing, and who is moving in?
Elmira has lost about 7% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Binghamton, NY.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Elmira go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Elmira, month by month
Elmira sees roughly 68 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 38, with lows near 18. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 38° | 28° | 18° |
| April | 62° | 47° | 34° |
| July | 87° | 72° | 58° |
| October | 67° | 53° | 41° |
Flying in and out of Elmira
The nearest airport, Elmira/Corning Regional, is about 6 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Newark Liberty International, about 168 miles away.
The best schools in and around Elmira
Schools across Elmira average a B−, better than 81% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Ridge Road SchoolA · 68% proficient
- Big Flats SchoolA · 65% proficient
- Cohen Elementary SchoolA · 63% proficient
Top middle schools
- Corning-painted Post Middle SchoolB · 43% proficient
- Waverly Middle SchoolC · 33% proficient
- Cohen Middle SchoolC− · 30% proficient
Top high schools
- Horseheads Senior High SchoolA+ · 95% proficient
- Corning-painted Post High SchoolA+ · 92% proficient
- Waverly High SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Elmira school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Elmira 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 Elmira against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Elmira suits
Common questions about living in Elmira
Is Elmira a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Elmira ranks 255th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on clean air, short commutes, and a stable housing market, and lowest on property taxes and internet speeds. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Elmira expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $148,319. The overall cost of living runs about 10% below the national average. Set against a $67,418 median income, cost of living beats 13% of metro areas.
Is Elmira safe?
Yes, Elmira is safer than 60% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $326 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Elmira?
July highs average about 87 degrees, and January highs near 38 with lows near 18. That works out to about 68 pleasant days a year, more than 18% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Elmira?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Horseheads, West Elmira & Pine City, and Downtown Elmira. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Elmira good for families?
Schools beat 81% of metro areas, crime safety beats 60%, and childcare runs $1,088 a month.
Is Elmira good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 13% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 3% of metro areas. About 9% of workers already work from home.
Compare Elmira with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Elmira. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Elmira 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.
Elmira detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Elmira: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Elmira: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Elmira: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Elmira: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Elmira 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.