Best PlacesPenn Yan, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Penn Yan, 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.
Penn Yan ranks 11,444th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on good schools by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Penn Yan
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.
Penn Yan's strengths and weaknesses
Where Penn Yan ranks high
- School gradeA, better than 97% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 94% of towns
- BikingBetter than 92% of towns
- Short commute18.6 minutes each way, better than 92% of towns
- TransitBetter than 90% of towns
Where Penn Yan ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 11% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 15% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 15% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,088 a month, better than only 18% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Penn Yan
A household needs to earn about $63,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Penn Yan home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $74,414, 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 Penn Yan's effective rate of 1.48%, 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 Penn Yan
Penn Yan runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Penn Yan.
Who works in Penn Yan, and how
Work in Penn Yan 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 78%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 10%
Life in Penn Yan
Penn Yan has more restaurants and bars per resident than 92% of towns and more parkland per resident than 93% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Penn Yan and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Penn Yan, month by month
Penn Yan sees roughly 97 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 36, with lows near 19. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 36° | 27° | 19° |
| April | 59° | 46° | 36° |
| July | 85° | 73° | 62° |
| October | 65° | 54° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Penn Yan
The nearest airport, Ithaca Tompkins International, is about 32 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Newark Liberty International, about 202 miles away.
The best schools in and around Penn Yan
Schools across Penn Yan average an A, better than 97% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Penn Yan Elementary SchoolA+ · 73% proficient
- Dundee Elementary SchoolB+ · 53% proficient
Top middle schools
- Penn Yan Middle SchoolA− · 58% proficient
- Marcus Whitman Middle SchoolB+ · 48% proficient
- Geneva Middle SchoolC− · 31% proficient
Top high schools
- Marcus Whitman High SchoolA+ · 98% proficient
- Penn Yan AcademyA+ · 98% proficient
- Geneva High SchoolA+ · 90% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Penn Yan school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Penn Yan 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 Penn Yan against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Penn Yan
Is Penn Yan a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Penn Yan ranks 11,444th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on good schools, walkability, and biking, and lowest on property taxes and car insurance costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Penn Yan expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $220,154. The overall cost of living runs about 8% above the national average. Set against a $74,414 median income, cost of living beats 27% of towns.
Is Penn Yan safe?
Yes, Penn Yan is safer than 63% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $292 per resident a year.
Compare Penn Yan with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Penn Yan. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Penn Yan 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.
Penn Yan detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Penn Yan: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Penn Yan: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Penn Yan: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Penn Yan: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Penn Yan 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.