Best PlacesHarrisburg, IN Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Harrisburg, 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.
Harrisburg ranks 23,228th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. The weather pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on cheap car insurance.
The best neighborhoods in Harrisburg
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.
Harrisburg's strengths and weaknesses
Where Harrisburg ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 88% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 86% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 80% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 77% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 68% of towns
Where Harrisburg ranks low
- Nice weatherabout 58 pleasant days a year, better than only 5% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 6% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 14% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 23% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 26% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Harrisburg
A household needs to earn about $45,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Harrisburg home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $79,919, 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 Harrisburg's effective rate of 0.82%, 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 4 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Harrisburg
Harrisburg runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Harrisburg.
Who works in Harrisburg, and how
Work in Harrisburg centers on manufacturing 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 91%
- Work from home 6%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Harrisburg
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Harrisburg.
What the weather is like in Harrisburg, month by month
Harrisburg sees roughly 58 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 41, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs April through June and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 41° | 32° | 23° |
| April | 69° | 55° | 42° |
| July | 88° | 77° | 66° |
| October | 73° | 58° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Harrisburg
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International sits about 53 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 4.4 million passengers in 2025, with 99 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Harrisburg
Schools across Harrisburg average a B−, better than 59% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Fayette Central ElementaryB− · 42% proficient
- Western Wayne Elementary SchoolC · 33% proficient
Top middle schools
- Lincoln Middle SchoolC · 35% proficient
- Connersville Middle SchoolC− · 30% proficient
Top high schools
- Connersville Sr High SchoolB+ · 58% proficient
- Lincoln Sr High SchoolB− · 42% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Harrisburg school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Harrisburg 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 Harrisburg against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Harrisburg
Is Harrisburg a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Harrisburg ranks 23,228th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, health care access, and state infrastructure, and lowest on the weather and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Harrisburg expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $169,785. The overall cost of living runs about 17% below the national average. Set against a $79,919 median income, cost of living beats 77% of towns.
Is Harrisburg safe?
Harrisburg is safer than 47% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $265 per resident a year.
Compare Harrisburg with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Harrisburg. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Harrisburg 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.
Harrisburg detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Harrisburg: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Harrisburg: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Harrisburg: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Harrisburg: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Harrisburg 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.