Best PlacesMacon, GA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Macon 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 Theshywillraindeath, CC BY-SA 3.0, via commons
Macon ranks 380th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on the schools and biking. It does better on fast internet, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Macon 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 Macon
The towns and districts of the Macon 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.
Forsyth
Crime runs lower, fewer homes sit empty, and more adults hold degrees.
Gray
It is quieter and tree cover is thicker.
Lizella & Roberta
Prices have run up less and incomes run higher.
Jeffersonville & Dry Branch
Homes cost less, though fewer households have young kids.
Downtown Macon
Local pay stretches less far and health care is harder to reach.
Macon shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 1% of the country and others in the top 10%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Macon's strengths and weaknesses
Macon ranks near the bottom because several of the basics fall short at once. Fast internet, affordable childcare, and tree cover carry most of that.
The weak spots are broad rather than narrow: the schools, biking, and crime all drag on the score. Those are area averages, and the map below shows which parts run well above them.
Where Macon ranks high
- Internet speedBetter than 92% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$619 a month, better than 91% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than 90% of metro areas
- State fiscal healthBetter than 77% of metro areas
- State infrastructureBetter than 73% of metro areas
Where Macon ranks low
- School gradeD, better than only 1% of metro areas
- BikingBetter than only 3% of metro areas
- Crime safetyBetter than only 5% of metro areas
- Low vacancyBetter than only 7% of metro areas
- Cell coverageBetter than only 10% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Macon
A household needs to earn about $54,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Macon home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $65,601, 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 Macon's effective rate of 0.89%, 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 Macon
Macon's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Macon.
Who works in Macon, and how
Work in Macon 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 85%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Macon
Macon has less parkland per resident than most metro areas. That concentrates in some parts of Macon and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Macon growing, and who is moving in?
Macon has grown about 3% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Atlanta, GA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Macon go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Macon, month by month
Macon sees roughly 81 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 95 degrees. January highs sit near 62, with lows near 36. The comfortable stretch runs March through May, October, and November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 62° | 48° | 36° |
| April | 80° | 65° | 49° |
| July | 95° | 81° | 71° |
| October | 83° | 66° | 53° |
Flying in and out of Macon
The nearest airport, Middle Georgia Regional, is about 10 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Hartsfield/Jackson Atlanta International, about 70 miles away.
The best schools in and around Macon
Schools across Macon average a D, better than 1% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- T.g. Scott Elementary SchoolA− · 56% proficient
- Turner Woods Elementary SchoolB · 48% proficient
- Samuel E. Hubbard Elementary SchoolB · 48% proficient
Top middle schools
- Monroe County Middle School- Banks Stephens CampusB+ · 49% proficient
- Gray Station Middle SchoolC+ · 36% proficient
- Northside Middle SchoolC · 32% proficient
Top high schools
- Mary Persons High SchoolB · 47% proficient
- Jones County High SchoolC− · 30% proficient
- Putnam County High SchoolD · 20% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Macon school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Macon 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 Macon against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Macon suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 10% already work from home.
Retirees
Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.
Common questions about living in Macon
Is Macon a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Macon ranks 380th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on fast internet, affordable childcare, and tree cover, and lowest on the schools and biking. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Macon expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $203,717. The overall cost of living runs about 13% below the national average. Set against a $65,601 median income, cost of living beats 11% of metro areas.
Is Macon safe?
Macon is safer than 5% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $494 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Macon?
July highs average about 95 degrees, and January highs near 62 with lows near 36. That works out to about 81 pleasant days a year, more than 41% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Macon?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Forsyth, Gray, and Lizella & Roberta. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Macon good for families?
Schools beat 1% of metro areas, crime safety beats 5%, and childcare runs $619 a month.
Is Macon good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 11% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 92% of metro areas. About 10% of workers already work from home.
Compare Macon with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Macon. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Macon 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.
Macon detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Macon: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Macon: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Macon: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Macon: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Macon 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.