Best PlacesPawling, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Pawling, 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.
Pawling ranks 5,287th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on big-city access by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Pawling
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.
Pawling's strengths and weaknesses
Where Pawling ranks high
- Big-city accessBetter than 97% of towns
- School gradeA, better than 96% of towns
- TransitBetter than 93% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 92% of towns
- Household income$115,236 median, better than 92% of towns
Where Pawling ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 4% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 4% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 6% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,308 a month, better than only 10% of towns
- Short commute36.2 minutes each way, better than only 11% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Pawling
A household needs to earn about $130,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Pawling home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $115,236, so buying stretches a typical household.
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 Pawling's effective rate of 1.88%, 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 Pawling
Pawling runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Pawling.
Who works in Pawling, and how
Work in Pawling centers on education and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 79%
- Work from home 16%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Pawling
Pawling has more restaurants and bars per resident than 98% of towns. The coast is about 47 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Pawling and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Pawling, month by month
Pawling sees roughly 72 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 41, with lows near 21. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 41° | 31° | 21° |
| April | 63° | 50° | 38° |
| July | 86° | 75° | 63° |
| October | 68° | 55° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Pawling
The nearest airport, New York Stewart International, is about 26 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Bradley International, about 54 miles away.
The best schools in and around Pawling
Schools across Pawling average an A, better than 96% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Pawling Elementary SchoolA+ · 75% proficient
- Vail Farm Elementary SchoolA · 70% proficient
- Beekman SchoolB+ · 53% proficient
Top middle schools
- Union Vale Middle SchoolA+ · 73% proficient
- Pawling Middle SchoolB · 47% proficient
- Dover Middle SchoolC− · 30% proficient
Top high schools
- Pawling High SchoolA+ · 98% proficient
- Arlington High SchoolA+ · 95% proficient
- Dover High SchoolA+ · 94% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Pawling school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Pawling 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 Pawling against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Pawling
Is Pawling a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Pawling ranks 5,287th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on big-city access, good schools, and transit, 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 Pawling expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $432,400. The overall cost of living runs about 19% above the national average. Set against a $115,236 median income, cost of living beats 76% of towns.
Is Pawling safe?
Yes, Pawling is safer than 88% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $199 per resident a year.
Compare Pawling with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Pawling. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Pawling 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.
Pawling detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Pawling: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Pawling: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Pawling: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Pawling: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Pawling 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.