Best PlacesLily Dale, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Lily Dale, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Lily Dale ranks 20,970th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on short commutes by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Lily Dale
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.
Lily Dale's strengths and weaknesses
Where Lily Dale ranks high
- Short commute15.4 minutes each way, better than 97% of towns
- School gradeA, better than 95% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 95% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 88% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 85% of towns
Where Lily Dale ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 2% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 4% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 9% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 11% of towns
- Household income$51,285 median, better than only 14% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Lily Dale
A household needs to earn about $45,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Lily Dale home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $51,285, 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 Lily Dale's effective rate of 1.85%, 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 Lily Dale
Lily Dale 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 Lily Dale.
Who works in Lily Dale, and how
Work in Lily Dale centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 70%
- Work from home 24%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Lily Dale
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Lily Dale.
What the weather is like in Lily Dale, month by month
Lily Dale sees roughly 93 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 37, with lows near 22. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 37° | 29° | 22° |
| April | 59° | 47° | 36° |
| July | 83° | 73° | 62° |
| October | 66° | 56° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Lily Dale
The nearest airport, Erie International/Tom Ridge Field, is about 47 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Pittsburgh International, about 137 miles away.
The best schools in and around Lily Dale
Schools across Lily Dale average an A, better than 95% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Sinclairville Elementary SchoolA · 63% proficient
- Fredonia Elementary SchoolB+ · 53% proficient
Top middle schools
- Fredonia Middle SchoolA · 59% proficient
Top high schools
- Fredonia High SchoolA+ · 98% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Lily Dale school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Lily Dale 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 Lily Dale against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Lily Dale
Is Lily Dale a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Lily Dale ranks 20,970th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on short commutes, good schools, and low crime, and lowest on an overheated housing market and property taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Lily Dale expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $149,693. The overall cost of living runs about 7% below the national average. Set against a $51,285 median income, cost of living beats 9% of towns.
Is Lily Dale safe?
Yes, Lily Dale is safer than 95% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $159 per resident a year.
Compare Lily Dale with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Lily Dale. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Lily Dale 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.
Lily Dale detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Lily Dale: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Lily Dale: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Lily Dale: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Lily Dale: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Lily Dale 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.