Best PlacesRochester, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Rochester metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Andreas F. Borchert, CC BY-SA 4.0, via commons
Rochester ranks 108th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on property taxes and car insurance costs. It does better on low disaster risk, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Rochester metro
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.
The best areas in Rochester
The towns and districts of the Rochester metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Honeoye Falls, Lima & Springwater
Schools score higher, it is quieter, and incomes run higher.
Fairport & Penfield
Crime runs lower and local pay stretches further.
Canandaigua, Geneva & Victor
Biking is worse and streets are more car-dependent.
Webster & Ontario
Tree cover is thicker and more residents vote.
North Chili & Churchville
Scores close to Webster & Ontario, except that advertised internet is faster here.
Hilton, Brockport & Greece
Fewer adults hold degrees and transit reaches fewer jobs.
Geneseo, West Henrietta & Dansville
Prices have run up less and homes cost less.
Downtown Rochester
Fewer households have young kids.
Irondequoit
Health care is harder to reach and health outcomes score lower.
Rochester shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 1% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Rochester's strengths and weaknesses
Rochester lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Low disaster risk is the standout, in the top 1% of metro areas. Clean air and good schools follow.
The one real hole is property taxes, near the bottom of the country. Car insurance costs and state infrastructure also cost it ground. Cost swings more from one part of Rochester to another than it does between Rochester and its neighbors, which the map below shows.
Where Rochester ranks high
- Disaster safetyBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than 92% of metro areas
- School gradeB+, better than 92% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than 91% of metro areas
- Healthcare accessBetter than 87% of metro areas
Where Rochester ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 14% of metro areas
- State infrastructureBetter than only 15% of metro areas
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 16% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$1,275 a month, better than only 17% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Rochester
A household needs to earn about $68,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Rochester home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $84,549, 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 Rochester's effective rate of 2.29%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Rochester
Rochester's age mix sits close to the national median, 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 Rochester.
Who works in Rochester, and how
Work in Rochester centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 78%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Rochester
Rochester has more restaurants and bars per resident than 72% of metro areas and more parkland per resident than 87% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Rochester and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Rochester growing, and who is moving in?
Rochester has held roughly flat in population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from New York, NY.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Rochester go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Rochester, month by month
Rochester sees roughly 73 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 Rochester
The nearest airport, Frederick Douglass/Greater Rochester International, is about 4 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Pittsburgh International, about 228 miles away.
The best schools in and around Rochester
Schools across Rochester average a B+, better than 92% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Scribner Road Elementary SchoolA+ · 94% proficient
- Park Road SchoolA+ · 91% proficient
- Thornell Road SchoolA+ · 91% proficient
Top middle schools
- Iroquois Middle SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
- Calkins Road Middle SchoolA+ · 76% proficient
- Honeoye Falls-lima Middle SchoolA+ · 74% proficient
Top high schools
- Pittsford-mendon High SchoolA+ · 100% proficient
- Pittsford Sutherland High SchoolA+ · 100% proficient
- Thomas High SchoolA+ · 99% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Rochester school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Rochester 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 Rochester against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Rochester suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 14% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Rochester
Is Rochester a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Rochester ranks 108th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on low disaster risk, clean air, and good schools, 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 Rochester expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $215,226. The overall cost of living runs about 7% below the national average. Set against a $84,549 median income, cost of living beats 60% of metro areas.
Is Rochester safe?
Yes, Rochester is safer than 68% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $305 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Rochester?
July highs average about 85 degrees, and January highs near 36 with lows near 20. That works out to about 73 pleasant days a year, more than 29% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Rochester?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Honeoye Falls, Lima & Springwater, Fairport & Penfield, and Canandaigua, Geneva & Victor. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Rochester good for families?
Schools beat 92% of metro areas, crime safety beats 68%, and childcare runs $1,275 a month.
Is Rochester good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 60% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 91% of metro areas. About 14% of workers already work from home.
Compare Rochester with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Rochester. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Rochester 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.
Rochester detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Rochester: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Rochester: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Rochester: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Rochester: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Rochester 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.