Best PlacesOakland Mills, PA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Oakland Mills, 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.
Oakland Mills ranks 19,525th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cell coverage by a wide margin, and education levels rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Oakland Mills
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.
Oakland Mills' strengths and weaknesses
Where Oakland Mills ranks high
- Cell coverageBetter than 95% of towns
- BikingBetter than 87% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 86% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 80% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 80% of towns
Where Oakland Mills ranks low
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 2% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 19% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 25% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 26% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 27% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Oakland Mills
A household needs to earn about $46,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Oakland Mills home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $66,845, 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 Oakland Mills' effective rate of 0.80%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Oakland Mills
Oakland Mills runs younger than the country, though it still carries a larger-than-average share of residents over 65.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Oakland Mills.
Who works in Oakland Mills, and how
Work in Oakland Mills centers on manufacturing and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 80%
- Work from home 16%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Oakland Mills
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Oakland Mills.
What the weather is like in Oakland Mills, month by month
Oakland Mills sees roughly 77 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 37, with lows near 25. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 37° | 31° | 25° |
| April | 63° | 52° | 42° |
| July | 87° | 75° | 65° |
| October | 65° | 55° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Oakland Mills
The nearest airport, State College Regional, is about 32 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall, about 105 miles away.
The best schools in and around Oakland Mills
Schools across Oakland Mills average a B, better than 69% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Juniata El SchB · 45% proficient
Top high schools
- East Juniata JshsB · 47% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Oakland Mills school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Oakland Mills 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 Oakland Mills against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Oakland Mills
Is Oakland Mills a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Oakland Mills ranks 19,525th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cell coverage, biking, and big-city access, and lowest on education levels and state infrastructure. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Oakland Mills expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $174,200. The overall cost of living runs about 18% below the national average. Set against a $66,845 median income, cost of living beats 46% of towns.
Is Oakland Mills safe?
Oakland Mills is safer than 54% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $243 per resident a year.
Compare Oakland Mills with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Oakland Mills. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Oakland Mills 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.
Oakland Mills detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Oakland Mills: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Oakland Mills: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Oakland Mills: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Oakland Mills: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Oakland Mills 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.