Best PlacesRutan, PA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Rutan, 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.
Rutan ranks 39,274th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on heat safety by a wide margin, and long commutes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Rutan
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.
Rutan's strengths and weaknesses
Where Rutan ranks high
- Heat safetyBetter than 93% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 89% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 76% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 66% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 64% of towns
Where Rutan ranks low
- Short commute58.8 minutes each way, better than only 1% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 3% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 16% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Rutan
A household needs to earn about $42,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Rutan home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $67,500, 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 Rutan's effective rate of 0.83%, 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 Rutan
Rutan runs younger 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 Rutan.
Who works in Rutan, and how
Work in Rutan centers on construction and health care & social. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 98%
- Work from home 1%
- Transit, walk, or bike 1%
Life in Rutan
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Rutan.
What the weather is like in Rutan, month by month
Rutan sees roughly 74 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 40, with lows near 21. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 40° | 30° | 21° |
| April | 65° | 51° | 39° |
| July | 85° | 73° | 62° |
| October | 68° | 54° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Rutan
The nearest airport, Morgantown Municipal/Walter L Bill Hart Field, is about 27 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Pittsburgh International, about 46 miles away.
The best schools in and around Rutan
Schools across Rutan average a C+, better than 63% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- West Greene El CtrA+ · 80% proficient
Top high schools
- West Greene JshsC− · 30% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Rutan school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Rutan 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 Rutan against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Rutan
Is Rutan a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Rutan ranks 39,274th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on heat safety, a stable housing market, and tree cover, and lowest on long commutes and cell coverage. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Rutan expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $159,400. The overall cost of living runs about 21% below the national average. Set against a $67,500 median income, cost of living beats 58% of towns.
Is Rutan safe?
Rutan is safer than 32% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $308 per resident a year.
Compare Rutan with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Rutan. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Rutan 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.
Rutan detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Rutan: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Rutan: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Rutan: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Rutan: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Rutan 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.