Best PlacesHorseheads, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Horseheads, 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.
Horseheads ranks 9,140th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on short commutes by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Horseheads
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.
Horseheads' strengths and weaknesses
Where Horseheads ranks high
- Short commute17.8 minutes each way, better than 94% of towns
- TransitBetter than 91% of towns
- BikingBetter than 90% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 88% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 88% of towns
Where Horseheads ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 3% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 10% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 15% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 15% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,088 a month, better than only 18% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Horseheads
A household needs to earn about $61,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Horseheads home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $79,927, 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 Horseheads' effective rate of 2.00%, 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 6 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Horseheads
Horseheads 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 Horseheads.
Who works in Horseheads, and how
Work in Horseheads centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 90%
- Work from home 7%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Horseheads
Horseheads has more restaurants and bars per resident than 85% of towns and more parkland per resident than 93% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Horseheads and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Horseheads, month by month
Horseheads sees roughly 68 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 38, with lows near 18. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 38° | 28° | 18° |
| April | 62° | 47° | 34° |
| July | 87° | 72° | 58° |
| October | 67° | 53° | 41° |
Flying in and out of Horseheads
The nearest airport, Elmira/Corning Regional, is about 3 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Newark Liberty International, about 172 miles away.
The best schools in and around Horseheads
Schools across Horseheads average a B, better than 87% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Gardner Road Elementary SchoolA+ · 78% proficient
- Ridge Road SchoolA · 68% proficient
- Big Flats SchoolA · 65% proficient
Top middle schools
- Corning-painted Post Middle SchoolB · 43% proficient
- Horseheads Middle SchoolB− · 42% proficient
- Cohen Middle SchoolC− · 30% proficient
Top high schools
- Horseheads Senior High SchoolA+ · 95% proficient
- Corning-painted Post High SchoolA+ · 92% proficient
- Thomas A Edison High SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Horseheads school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Horseheads 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 Horseheads against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Horseheads
Is Horseheads a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Horseheads ranks 9,140th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on short commutes, transit, and biking, and lowest on property taxes and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Horseheads expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $199,379. The overall cost of living runs about 3% below the national average. Set against a $79,927 median income, cost of living beats 55% of towns.
Is Horseheads safe?
Yes, Horseheads is safer than 85% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $223 per resident a year.
Compare Horseheads with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Horseheads. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Horseheads 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.
Horseheads detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Horseheads: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Horseheads: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Horseheads: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Horseheads: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Horseheads 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.