Best PlacesHarrisburg, PA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Harrisburg 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 Djembayz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via commons
Harrisburg ranks 92nd 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 health care access and big-city access. The weaker spots are noise, the weather, and state infrastructure.
The best neighborhoods in the Harrisburg 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 Harrisburg
The towns and districts of the Harrisburg 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.
Schlusser
Incomes run higher, local pay stretches further, and crime runs lower.
Colonial Park, Linglestown & Lykens
It is quieter, though streets are more car-dependent.
Mechanicsburg & New Cumberland
More adults hold degrees, though fewer households have young kids.
Carlisle & Shippensburg
Schools score higher, though tree cover is thinner.
Hummelstown, Hershey & Progress
Scores close to Carlisle & Shippensburg, except that fewer homes sit empty here.
Millersburg, Halifax & Dauphin
Scores close to Hummelstown, Hershey & Progress, except that homes cost less here.
Downtown Harrisburg
Biking is better.
Duncannon, Newport & Shermans Dale
Prices have run up less, though commutes are longer.
Middletown
Disaster risk is higher and fewer residents vote.
Harrisburg shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 2% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Harrisburg's strengths and weaknesses
Harrisburg ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Health care access, big-city access, and few empty homes carry most of that.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Noise, the weather, 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 Harrisburg ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 91% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than 86% of metro areas
- Low vacancyBetter than 84% of metro areas
- School gradeB, better than 81% of metro areas
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 80% of metro areas
Where Harrisburg ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 5% of metro areas
- Nice weatherabout 62 pleasant days a year, better than only 8% of metro areas
- State infrastructureBetter than only 15% of metro areas
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 19% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than only 21% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Harrisburg
A household needs to earn about $73,000 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 $89,190, 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 1.24%, 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 8 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's age mix sits close to the national median, 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 Harrisburg.
Who works in Harrisburg, and how
Work in Harrisburg centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 76%
- Work from home 17%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Harrisburg
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Harrisburg.
Is Harrisburg growing, and who is moving in?
Harrisburg has grown about 10% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Philadelphia, PA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Harrisburg go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Harrisburg, month by month
Harrisburg sees roughly 62 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 91 degrees. January highs sit near 43, with lows near 25. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 43° | 34° | 25° |
| April | 69° | 55° | 43° |
| July | 91° | 79° | 68° |
| October | 72° | 59° | 48° |
Flying in and out of Harrisburg
The nearest airport, Harrisburg International, is about 8 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall, about 77 miles away.
The best schools in and around Harrisburg
Schools across Harrisburg average a B, better than 81% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Grace B Luhrs Univ ElemA+ · 90% proficient
- Highland El SchA+ · 85% proficient
- Infinity CsA+ · 82% proficient
Top middle schools
- Hershey MsA+ · 82% proficient
- Mountain View MsA · 62% proficient
- Eagle View MsA · 60% proficient
Top high schools
- Shippensburg Area ShsA+ · 85% proficient
- Northern HsA+ · 85% proficient
- Greenwood HsA+ · 80% 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 386 metro areas.
Who Harrisburg suits
Common questions about living in Harrisburg
Is Harrisburg a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Harrisburg ranks 92nd of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on health care access, big-city access, and few empty homes, and lowest on noise and the weather. 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 $263,968. The overall cost of living runs about 5% below the national average. Set against a $89,190 median income, cost of living beats 69% of metro areas.
Is Harrisburg safe?
Yes, Harrisburg is safer than 78% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $237 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Harrisburg?
July highs average about 91 degrees, and January highs near 43 with lows near 25. That works out to about 62 pleasant days a year, more than 8% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Harrisburg?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Schlusser, Colonial Park, Linglestown & Lykens, and Mechanicsburg & New Cumberland. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Harrisburg good for families?
Schools beat 81% of metro areas, crime safety beats 78%, and childcare runs $989 a month.
Is Harrisburg good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 69% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 21% of metro areas. About 17% of workers already work from home.
Compare Harrisburg with other metro areas
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.
- 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.