Best PlacesJohnstown, PA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Johnstown metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Darthgriz98, CC BY-SA 3.0, via commons
Johnstown ranks 248th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on internet speeds and low incomes. It does better on a stable housing market, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Johnstown 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 Johnstown
The towns and districts of the Johnstown 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.
Downtown Johnstown
Schools score higher, fewer homes sit empty, and commutes are shorter.
Ebensburg, Loretto & Patton
It is quieter and crime runs lower.
Portage, Cresson & Lilly
Fewer households have young kids.
South Fork
Tree cover is thicker, though streets are more car-dependent.
Northern Cambria & Nanty-Glo
Health care is harder to reach.
Westmont, Elim & Southmont
Biking is better.
Johnstown shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 3% of the country and others in the top 6%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Johnstown's strengths and weaknesses
Johnstown lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. A stable housing market is the standout, in the top 1% of metro areas. Low disaster risk and heat safety follow.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Internet speeds, low incomes, and a weak job market hold the score down. The detail is below, and the map is where it turns into a choice of neighborhood rather than just a place.
Where Johnstown ranks high
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than 98% of metro areas
- Heat safetyBetter than 92% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$613 a month, better than 92% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than 90% of metro areas
Where Johnstown ranks low
- Internet speedBetter than only 6% of metro areas
- Household income$63,225 median, better than only 6% of metro areas
- Local economyBetter than only 11% of metro areas
- BikingBetter than only 13% of metro areas
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 13% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Johnstown
A household needs to earn about $39,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Johnstown home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $63,225, 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 Johnstown's effective rate of 1.28%, 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 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Johnstown
Johnstown 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 Johnstown.
Who works in Johnstown, and how
Work in Johnstown 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 84%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Johnstown
Johnstown has more parkland per resident than 86% of metro areas. That concentrates in some parts of Johnstown and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Johnstown growing, and who is moving in?
Johnstown has lost about 5% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Pittsburgh, PA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Johnstown go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Johnstown, month by month
Johnstown sees roughly 85 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 81 degrees. January highs sit near 35, with lows near 20. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 35° | 27° | 20° |
| April | 61° | 48° | 38° |
| July | 81° | 71° | 62° |
| October | 64° | 53° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Johnstown
The nearest airport, John Murtha Johnstown/Cambria County, is about 4 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Pittsburgh International, about 71 miles away.
The best schools in and around Johnstown
Schools across Johnstown average a B, better than 80% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Richland El SchA+ · 85% proficient
- Conemaugh Twp Area El SchA+ · 80% proficient
- Westmont Hilltop El SchA+ · 80% proficient
Top middle schools
- Central Cambria MsB− · 41% proficient
- Penn Cambria MsB− · 41% proficient
- Greater Johnstown MsD− · 15% proficient
Top high schools
- Central Cambria HsA · 73% proficient
- Richland HsA · 70% proficient
- Cambria Heights ShsA− · 67% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Johnstown school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Johnstown 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 Johnstown against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Johnstown suits
Common questions about living in Johnstown
Is Johnstown a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Johnstown ranks 248th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on a stable housing market, low disaster risk, and heat safety, and lowest on internet speeds and low incomes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Johnstown expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $138,564. The overall cost of living runs about 16% below the national average. Set against a $63,225 median income, cost of living beats 13% of metro areas.
Is Johnstown safe?
Johnstown is safer than 51% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $295 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Johnstown?
July highs average about 81 degrees, and January highs near 35 with lows near 20. That works out to about 85 pleasant days a year, more than 48% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Johnstown?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Downtown Johnstown, Ebensburg, Loretto & Patton, and Portage, Cresson & Lilly. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Johnstown good for families?
Schools beat 80% of metro areas, crime safety beats 51%, and childcare runs $613 a month.
Is Johnstown good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 13% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 6% of metro areas. About 11% of workers already work from home.
Compare Johnstown with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Johnstown. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Johnstown 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.
Johnstown detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Johnstown: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Johnstown: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Johnstown: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Johnstown: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Johnstown 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.