Best PlacesPenfield, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Penfield, 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.
Penfield ranks 696th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low disaster risk by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Penfield
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.
Penfield's strengths and weaknesses
Where Penfield ranks high
- Disaster safetyBetter than 99% of towns
- School gradeA+, better than 99% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 98% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 98% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 98% of towns
Where Penfield ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 1% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,317 a month, better than only 8% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 9% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 15% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Penfield
A household needs to earn about $96,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Penfield home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $118,440, 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 Penfield's effective rate of 2.38%, 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 Penfield
Penfield runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Penfield.
Who works in Penfield, and how
Work in Penfield centers on education and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 73%
- Work from home 23%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Penfield
Penfield has more parkland per resident than 87% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Penfield and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Penfield, month by month
Penfield sees roughly 70 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 36, with lows near 20. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 36° | 28° | 20° |
| April | 59° | 47° | 36° |
| July | 85° | 73° | 62° |
| October | 66° | 54° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Penfield
The nearest airport, Frederick Douglass/Greater Rochester International, is about 11 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Pittsburgh International, about 232 miles away.
The best schools in and around Penfield
Schools across Penfield average an A+, better than 99% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Scribner Road Elementary SchoolA+ · 94% proficient
- Harris Hill Elementary SchoolA+ · 90% proficient
- Cobbles Elementary SchoolA+ · 85% proficient
Top middle schools
- Bay Trail Middle SchoolA · 67% proficient
- Johanna Perrin Middle SchoolA · 59% proficient
- Spry Middle SchoolA− · 56% proficient
Top high schools
- Webster-schroeder High SchoolA+ · 98% proficient
- Penfield Senior High SchoolA+ · 97% proficient
- East Rochester Junior-senior High SchoolA · 71% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Penfield school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Penfield 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 Penfield against the other 50,332 towns.
Who Penfield suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 89% of towns, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 23% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Penfield
Is Penfield a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Penfield ranks 696th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low disaster risk, good schools, and health care access, and lowest on property taxes and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Penfield expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $303,550. The overall cost of living runs about 4% above the national average. Set against a $118,440 median income, cost of living beats 89% of towns.
Is Penfield safe?
Yes, Penfield is safer than 98% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $145 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Penfield?
July highs average about 85 degrees, and January highs near 36 with lows near 20. That works out to about 70 pleasant days a year, more than 26% of towns.
Is Penfield good for families?
Schools beat 99% of towns, crime safety beats 98%, and childcare runs $1,317 a month.
Compare Penfield with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Penfield. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Penfield 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.
Penfield detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Penfield: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Penfield: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Penfield: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Penfield: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Penfield 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.