Best PlacesRome, GA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in the Rome metro, 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.

See the map of best neighborhoods

A photo of the skyline of Rome, Georgia, USA as seen from Myrtle Hill

Photo by JumboCow, CC BY-SA 4.0, via commons

Rome ranks 292nd of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It does not top any single list, but it lands above the national middle on affordable childcare and tree cover. The weaker spots are the weather, biking, and walkability.

#292
of 387 metro areas
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 387 metro areas
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in the Rome metro

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Rome Metro area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

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 Rome

The towns and districts of the Rome 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.

#1

Cave Spring

It is quieter, tree cover is thicker, and crime runs lower.

WorseBetter
44th nationally
#2

Silver Creek

More residents vote and health care is easier to reach.

WorseBetter
43rd nationally
#3

Downtown Rome

More households have young kids, though fewer adults hold degrees.

WorseBetter
39th nationally
#4

Lindale

Local pay stretches less far and incomes run lower.

WorseBetter
17th nationally

Rome shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 3% of the country and others in the top 4%. Pick the area first, then the home.


Rome's strengths and weaknesses

Rome ranks near the bottom because several of the basics fall short at once. Affordable childcare, tree cover, and a strong job market carry most of that.

The weak spots are broad rather than narrow: the weather, biking, and walkability all drag on the score. Those are area averages, and the map below shows which parts run well above them.

Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Rome with other metro areas.

Where Rome ranks high

  • Cheap childcare$649 a month, better than 86% of metro areas
  • Tree shadeBetter than 86% of metro areas
  • Local economyBetter than 78% of metro areas
  • State fiscal healthBetter than 77% of metro areas
  • State infrastructureBetter than 73% of metro areas

Where Rome ranks low

  • Nice weatherabout 60 pleasant days a year, better than only 3% of metro areas
  • BikingBetter than only 3% of metro areas
  • WalkabilityBetter than only 12% of metro areas
  • TransitBetter than only 13% of metro areas
  • Educational attainmentBetter than only 16% of metro areas

What it costs to buy a home in Rome

A household needs to earn about $59,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Rome home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $72,573, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$59,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$1,378
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $222,268 home
Median rent
$1,034
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$1,133
Property tax$171
Homeowners insurance$74

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 Rome's effective rate of 0.92%, 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.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Rome

Rome's age mix sits close to the national median.

Median age
39
younger than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
17%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.6
near the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1823%
18 to 3423%
35 to 4919%
50 to 6418%
65 and older17%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Rome.


Who works in Rome, and how

Work in Rome centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
8%
below the national average
Unemployment
3.5%
below the national average
Job growth
+1.8%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Manufacturing18%
Health care & social15%
Education11%
Retail trade10%
Hospitality & food8%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 87%
  • Work from home 8%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 4%

Life in Rome

Rome has less late-night activity than most metro areas. That concentrates in some parts of Rome and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
436
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 44.2 per 10,000 residents, more than 39% of metro areas
Coffee shops
39
about 4.0 per 10,000 residents, more than 17% of metro areas
Parkland
466 acres
about 4.7 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 41% of metro areas
Open past 10pm
~59
food and drink venues open late, about 6.0 per 10,000 residents, more than 16% of metro areas
Living on campus
2,194
students living in college or university housing

Is Rome growing, and who is moving in?

Rome has grown about 6% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Atlanta, GA.

Population growth
+6%
over the decade, vs about 6% nationally
Population
101,390
up from 95,868
Growth pace
52nd percentile
of US metros by growth
Population by year. Source: U.S. Census Population Estimates Program.

Where new residents come from

Atlanta, GA1,960 / yr
Polk County, GA363 / yr
Cincinnati, OH334 / yr
Gordon County, GA224 / yr
Miami, FL210 / yr

Where people leaving Rome go

Atlanta, GA1,442 / yr
Auburn, AL454 / yr
Polk County, GA321 / yr
Gordon County, GA320 / yr
Macon, GA222 / yr

Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.


What the weather is like in Rome, month by month

Rome sees roughly 60 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 93 degrees. January highs sit near 56, with lows near 32. The comfortable stretch runs March through May, September, and October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January56°43°32°
April78°62°47°
July93°80°70°
October80°64°51°

Flying in and out of Rome

The nearest airport, Lovell Field, is about 53 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Hartsfield/Jackson Atlanta International, about 62 miles away.

Nearest airport
CHA
Lovell Field, about 53 miles
Airport size
Small hub
128th-busiest in the US, 32 nonstop destinations
Average drive
76 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Rome

Schools across Rome average a C, better than 25% of metro areas.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Rome school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Rome 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 Rome against the other 386 metro areas.


Who Rome suits

Families

Schools land around the 25th percentile.

See the families priority ↑

Remote workers

Internet is fast and widely advertised and 8% already work from home.

See the remote-work priority ↑

Retirees

It is quieter than 66%.

See the retirees priority ↑


Common questions about living in Rome

Is Rome a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Rome ranks 292nd of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on affordable childcare, tree cover, and a strong job market, and lowest on the weather and biking. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Rome expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $222,268. The overall cost of living runs about 15% below the national average. Set against a $72,573 median income, cost of living beats 37% of metro areas.

Is Rome safe?

Rome is safer than 53% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $311 per resident a year.

What is the weather like in Rome?

July highs average about 93 degrees, and January highs near 56 with lows near 32. That works out to about 60 pleasant days a year, more than 3% of metro areas.

What are the best neighborhoods in Rome?

Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Cave Spring, Silver Creek, and Downtown Rome. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.

Is Rome good for families?

Schools beat 25% of metro areas, crime safety beats 53%, and childcare runs $649 a month.

Is Rome good for remote workers?

Cost of living against local pay beats 37% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 65% of metro areas. About 8% of workers already work from home.


Compare Rome with other metro areas


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Rome. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Rome 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.

Rome detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Rome: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Rome: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Rome: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Rome: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Rome detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
  3. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  4. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  5. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  6. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  7. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  8. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  9. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  10. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  11. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  12. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  13. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.