Best PlacesExcelsior, PA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Excelsior, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Excelsior ranks 20,175th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on tree cover by a wide margin, and biking ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Excelsior
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.
Excelsior's strengths and weaknesses
Where Excelsior ranks high
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 91% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 90% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 89% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 84% of towns
Where Excelsior ranks low
- BikingBetter than only 3% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 10% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 10% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 66 pleasant days a year, better than only 18% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Excelsior
A household needs to earn about $36,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Excelsior home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $65,952, 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 Excelsior's effective rate of 1.06%, 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 Excelsior
Excelsior runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Excelsior.
Who works in Excelsior, and how
Work in Excelsior centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 80%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Excelsior
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Excelsior.
What the weather is like in Excelsior, month by month
Excelsior sees roughly 66 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 40, with lows near 21. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 40° | 30° | 21° |
| April | 65° | 51° | 38° |
| July | 88° | 75° | 63° |
| October | 68° | 54° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Excelsior
The nearest airport, Harrisburg International, is about 44 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Philadelphia International, about 95 miles away.
The best schools in and around Excelsior
Schools across Excelsior average a B, better than 71% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Shamokin Area El SchA · 65% proficient
Top middle schools
- Danville Area MsA− · 54% proficient
Top high schools
- Danville Area ShsA+ · 91% proficient
- Shamokin Area HsF · 10% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Excelsior school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Excelsior 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 Excelsior against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Excelsior
Is Excelsior a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Excelsior ranks 20,175th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on tree cover, a stable housing market, and low disaster risk, and lowest on biking and education levels. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Excelsior expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $134,133. The overall cost of living runs about 14% below the national average. Set against a $65,952 median income, cost of living beats 33% of towns.
Is Excelsior safe?
Yes, Excelsior is safer than 62% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $232 per resident a year.
Compare Excelsior with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Excelsior. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Excelsior 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.
Excelsior detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Excelsior: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Excelsior: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Excelsior: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Excelsior: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Excelsior 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.