Best PlacesOdessa, DE Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Odessa, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Odessa ranks 10,033rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on population health by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Odessa
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.
Odessa's strengths and weaknesses
Where Odessa ranks high
- Health outlookBetter than 98% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 98% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 97% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 97% of towns
- Household income$142,144 median, better than 96% of towns
Where Odessa ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 2% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 4% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 60 pleasant days a year, better than only 8% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,109 a month, better than only 16% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 18% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Odessa
A household needs to earn about $91,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Odessa home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $142,144, 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 Odessa's effective rate of 0.69%, 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 Odessa
Odessa's age mix sits close to the national median, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Odessa.
Who works in Odessa, and how
Work in Odessa 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 85%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 1%
Life in Odessa
The coast is about 9 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Odessa, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Odessa, month by month
Odessa sees roughly 60 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 45, with lows near 26. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 45° | 35° | 26° |
| April | 68° | 55° | 43° |
| July | 90° | 79° | 69° |
| October | 72° | 59° | 48° |
Flying in and out of Odessa
The nearest airport, New Castle, is about 16 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Philadelphia International, about 36 miles away.
The best schools in and around Odessa
Schools across Odessa average a B, better than 64% of towns.
Top middle schools
- Meredith (everett) Middle SchoolC− · 30% proficient
- Redding (louis L.) Middle SchoolC− · 29% proficient
Top high schools
- Middletown High SchoolB · 48% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Odessa school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Odessa 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 Odessa against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Odessa
Is Odessa a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Odessa ranks 10,033rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on population health, state infrastructure, and cell coverage, and lowest on noise and crime. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Odessa expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $353,764. The overall cost of living runs about 2% below the national average. Set against a $142,144 median income, cost of living beats 97% of towns.
Is Odessa safe?
Odessa is safer than 4% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $691 per resident a year.
Compare Odessa with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Odessa. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Odessa 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.
Odessa detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Odessa: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Odessa: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Odessa: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Odessa: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Odessa 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.