Best PlacesGettysburg, PA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Gettysburg metro, 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.
Photo by Aurora30 at English Wikipedia, via commons
Gettysburg ranks 93rd of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It does not top any single list, but it lands above the national middle on quiet and low crime. The weaker spots are long commutes, biking, and state infrastructure.
The best neighborhoods in the Gettysburg 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 Gettysburg
The towns and districts of the Gettysburg 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.
Carroll Valley & Fairfield
Tree cover is thicker, more households have young kids, and crime runs lower.
New Oxford
Fewer homes sit empty, though fewer adults hold degrees.
East Berlin
It is quieter, though streets are more car-dependent.
Downtown Gettysburg
Biking is better and commutes are shorter.
Hanover, Littlestown & McSherrystown
Prices have run up less.
Biglerville
Local pay stretches further, though fewer residents vote.
York Springs
Incomes run lower and health care is harder to reach.
Scores across Gettysburg run from about the 15th to the 85th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Gettysburg's strengths and weaknesses
Gettysburg ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Quiet, low crime, and big-city access carry most of that.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Long commutes, biking, and state infrastructure hold the score down. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Gettysburg ranks high
- QuietBetter than 96% of metro areas
- Crime safetyBetter than 95% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than 89% of metro areas
- Voter turnoutBetter than 82% of metro areas
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 81% of metro areas
Where Gettysburg ranks low
- Short commute28.2 minutes each way, better than only 9% of metro areas
- BikingBetter than only 14% of metro areas
- State infrastructureBetter than only 15% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than only 17% of metro areas
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 20% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Gettysburg
A household needs to earn about $76,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Gettysburg home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $85,979, 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 Gettysburg's effective rate of 1.25%, 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 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Gettysburg
Gettysburg runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Gettysburg.
Who works in Gettysburg, and how
Work in Gettysburg centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 83%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Gettysburg
Gettysburg has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas and less parkland per resident than most metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Gettysburg and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Gettysburg growing, and who is moving in?
Gettysburg has grown about 6% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from York, PA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Gettysburg go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Gettysburg, month by month
Gettysburg sees roughly 69 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 37, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 37° | 29° | 23° |
| April | 63° | 51° | 41° |
| July | 84° | 73° | 65° |
| October | 66° | 56° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Gettysburg
The nearest airport, Hagerstown Regional/Richard A Henson Field, is about 28 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall, about 54 miles away.
The best schools in and around Gettysburg
Schools across Gettysburg average a B+, better than 80% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Franklin Twp El SchA · 67% proficient
- James Gettys El SchA · 65% proficient
- Fairfield Area El SchA · 63% proficient
Top middle schools
- Upper Adams MsA− · 55% proficient
- Maple Avenue MsB+ · 48% proficient
- Gettysburg Area MsB+ · 47% proficient
Top high schools
- Fairfield Area HsA− · 65% proficient
- Littlestown ShsB+ · 53% proficient
- Gettysburg Area HsB+ · 52% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Gettysburg school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Gettysburg 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 Gettysburg against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Gettysburg suits
Common questions about living in Gettysburg
Is Gettysburg a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Gettysburg ranks 93rd of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on quiet, low crime, and big-city access, and lowest on long commutes and biking. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Gettysburg expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $275,726. The overall cost of living runs about 6% below the national average. Set against a $85,979 median income, cost of living beats 58% of metro areas.
Is Gettysburg safe?
Yes, Gettysburg is safer than 95% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $186 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Gettysburg?
July highs average about 84 degrees, and January highs near 37 with lows near 23. That works out to about 69 pleasant days a year, more than 20% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Gettysburg?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Carroll Valley & Fairfield, New Oxford, and East Berlin. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Gettysburg good for families?
Schools beat 80% of metro areas, crime safety beats 95%, and childcare runs $947 a month.
Is Gettysburg good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 58% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 17% of metro areas. About 12% of workers already work from home.
Compare Gettysburg with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Gettysburg. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Gettysburg 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.
Gettysburg detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Gettysburg: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Gettysburg: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Gettysburg: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Gettysburg: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Gettysburg 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.