Best PlacesHadley, MA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Hadley, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Hadley ranks 2,297th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on population health by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Hadley
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.
Hadley's strengths and weaknesses
Where Hadley ranks high
- Health outlookBetter than 99% of towns
- BikingBetter than 98% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 98% of towns
- TransitBetter than 96% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 96% of towns
Where Hadley ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,385 a month, better than only 6% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 63 pleasant days a year, better than only 13% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 22% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 24% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 25% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Hadley
A household needs to earn about $135,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Hadley home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $121,137; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Hadley'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 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 Hadley
Hadley 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 Hadley.
Who works in Hadley, and how
Work in Hadley centers on education and manufacturing. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 64%
- Work from home 19%
- Transit, walk, or bike 17%
Life in Hadley
Hadley has more restaurants and bars per resident than 93% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Hadley and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Hadley, month by month
Hadley sees roughly 63 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 39, with lows near 18. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 39° | 28° | 18° |
| April | 62° | 48° | 35° |
| July | 88° | 74° | 61° |
| October | 68° | 53° | 41° |
Flying in and out of Hadley
Bradley International sits about 29 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 3.3 million passengers in 2025, with 92 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Hadley
Schools across Hadley average a B, better than 72% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Hadley ElementaryA− · 60% proficient
- Wolf Swamp RoadB+ · 53% proficient
- Jackson StreetB+ · 52% proficient
Top middle schools
- John F Kennedy Middle SchoolC+ · 37% proficient
Top high schools
- Amherst Regional HighA+ · 80% proficient
- Northampton HighA · 70% proficient
- Hopkins AcademyB− · 45% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Hadley school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Hadley 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 Hadley against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Hadley
Is Hadley a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Hadley ranks 2,297th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on population health, biking, and an educated workforce, and lowest on childcare costs and the weather. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Hadley expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $497,730. The overall cost of living runs about 8% above the national average. Set against a $121,137 median income, cost of living beats 88% of towns.
Is Hadley safe?
Hadley is safer than 44% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $311 per resident a year.
Compare Hadley with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Hadley. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Hadley 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.
Hadley detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Hadley: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Hadley: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Hadley: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Hadley: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Hadley 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.