Best PlacesErie, PA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Erie 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 User:Cards84664, CC BY-SA 4.0, via wiki
Erie ranks 195th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on internet speeds and property taxes. It does better on low disaster risk, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Erie 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 Erie
The towns and districts of the Erie 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.
Fairview & Lake City
Crime runs lower, local pay stretches further, and incomes run higher.
North East, Northwest Harborcreek & Wesleyville
Schools score higher, though streets are more car-dependent.
Edinboro, Girard & Albion
It is quieter, though biking is worse.
Corry, Union City & Waterford
Prices have run up less, though fewer adults hold degrees.
Downtown Erie
Fewer residents vote and health care is harder to reach.
Erie shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 4% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Erie's strengths and weaknesses
Erie lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Low disaster risk, health care access, and short commutes carry most of that.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Internet speeds, property taxes, and a weak job market hold the score down. The detail is below, and the map is where it turns into a choice of neighborhood rather than just a place.
Where Erie ranks high
- Disaster safetyBetter than 96% of metro areas
- Healthcare accessBetter than 92% of metro areas
- Short commute19.6 minutes each way, better than 89% of metro areas
- Heat safetyBetter than 88% of metro areas
- School gradeB+, better than 87% of metro areas
Where Erie ranks low
- Internet speedBetter than only 6% of metro areas
- Low property taxBetter than only 7% of metro areas
- Local economyBetter than only 13% of metro areas
- State infrastructureBetter than only 15% of metro areas
- QuietBetter than only 17% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Erie
A household needs to earn about $53,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Erie home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $70,265, 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 Erie's effective rate of 1.61%, 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 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Erie
Erie's age mix sits close to the national median, 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 Erie.
Who works in Erie, and how
Work in Erie 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 83%
- Work from home 9%
- Transit, walk, or bike 8%
Life in Erie
Erie has less parkland per resident than most metro areas and more late-night spots per resident than 93% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Erie and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Erie growing, and who is moving in?
Erie has lost about 4% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Pittsburgh, PA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Erie go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Erie, month by month
Erie sees roughly 78 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 38, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 38° | 30° | 23° |
| April | 59° | 48° | 38° |
| July | 84° | 74° | 65° |
| October | 67° | 56° | 48° |
Flying in and out of Erie
The nearest airport, Erie International/Tom Ridge Field, is about 5 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Cleveland-Hopkins International, about 103 miles away.
The best schools in and around Erie
Schools across Erie average a B+, better than 87% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Bradford Woods El SchA+ · 93% proficient
- Wattsburg Area El CtrA+ · 80% proficient
- Robison El SchA+ · 80% proficient
Top middle schools
- Fairview MsA · 63% proficient
- Walnut Creek MsA− · 58% proficient
- James W Parker MsA− · 56% proficient
Top high schools
- Harbor Creek Senior HsA+ · 88% proficient
- Fairview HsA+ · 86% proficient
- Northwest Pa Collegiate AcademyA+ · 85% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Erie school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Erie 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 Erie against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Erie suits
Common questions about living in Erie
Is Erie a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Erie ranks 195th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on low disaster risk, health care access, and short commutes, and lowest on internet speeds and property taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Erie expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $183,758. The overall cost of living runs about 16% below the national average. Set against a $70,265 median income, cost of living beats 35% of metro areas.
Is Erie safe?
Erie is safer than 24% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $360 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Erie?
July highs average about 84 degrees, and January highs near 38 with lows near 23. That works out to about 78 pleasant days a year, more than 38% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Erie?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Fairview & Lake City, North East, Northwest Harborcreek & Wesleyville, and Edinboro, Girard & Albion. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Erie good for families?
Schools beat 87% of metro areas, crime safety beats 24%, and childcare runs $883 a month.
Is Erie good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 35% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 6% of metro areas. About 9% of workers already work from home.
Compare Erie with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Erie. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Erie 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.
Erie detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Erie: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Erie: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Erie: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Erie: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Erie 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.