Best PlacesGardners, PA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Gardners, 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.
Gardners ranks 10,777th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low crime by a wide margin, and taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Gardners
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.
Gardners' strengths and weaknesses
Where Gardners ranks high
- Crime safetyBetter than 94% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 91% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than 88% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 84% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 83% of towns
Where Gardners ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 18% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 19% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 68 pleasant days a year, better than only 21% of towns
- Cheap childcare$993 a month, better than only 25% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 26% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Gardners
A household needs to earn about $71,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Gardners home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $78,491, 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 Gardners' effective rate of 1.08%, 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 Gardners
Gardners runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Gardners.
Who works in Gardners, and how
Work in Gardners centers on retail trade and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 88%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Gardners
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Gardners.
What the weather is like in Gardners, month by month
Gardners sees roughly 68 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 43, with lows near 21. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 43° | 32° | 21° |
| April | 67° | 53° | 39° |
| July | 89° | 76° | 64° |
| October | 70° | 57° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Gardners
The nearest airport, Harrisburg International, is about 25 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall, about 66 miles away.
The best schools in and around Gardners
Schools across Gardners average a B+, better than 78% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Oak Flat El SchA · 72% proficient
- Bermudian Springs El SchB+ · 54% proficient
- Mt Holly Springs El SchB− · 40% proficient
Top middle schools
- Upper Adams MsA− · 55% proficient
- Yellow Breeches MsB+ · 50% proficient
- Lamberton MsB · 44% proficient
Top high schools
- Bermudian Springs HsA+ · 84% proficient
- Carlisle Area HsA · 75% proficient
- Boiling Springs HsA− · 65% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Gardners school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Gardners 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 Gardners against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Gardners
Is Gardners a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Gardners ranks 10,777th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low crime, big-city access, and few empty homes, and lowest on taxes and state infrastructure. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Gardners expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $262,731. The overall cost of living runs about 6% below the national average. Set against a $78,491 median income, cost of living beats 51% of towns.
Is Gardners safe?
Yes, Gardners is safer than 94% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $139 per resident a year.
Compare Gardners with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Gardners. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Gardners 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.
Gardners detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Gardners: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Gardners: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Gardners: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Gardners: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Gardners 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.