Best PlacesScranton, PA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Scranton 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 Ajay Suresh from New York, NY, USA, CC BY 2.0, via commons
Scranton ranks 216th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on noise and property taxes. It does better on walkability, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Scranton 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 Scranton
The towns and districts of the Scranton 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.
Dallas, Shavertown & Hunlock Creek
It is quieter, local pay stretches further, and incomes run higher.
Dalton & Factoryville
Tree cover is thicker, though streets are more car-dependent.
Tunkhannock
Prices have run up less and crime runs lower.
Pittston, Kingston & Old Forge
Schools score higher and fewer homes sit empty.
Moscow
Fewer households have young kids.
Downtown Scranton
Wilkes-Barre
Fewer residents vote.
Hazleton & Nanticoke
Fewer adults hold degrees and health care is harder to reach.
Scranton shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 4% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Scranton's strengths and weaknesses
Scranton lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Walkability, big-city access, and tree cover carry most of that.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Noise, property taxes, and state infrastructure hold the score down. That varies block to block rather than evenly, and the map below shows where.
Where Scranton ranks high
- WalkabilityBetter than 95% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than 87% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than 86% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than 86% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than 85% of metro areas
Where Scranton ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 13% of metro areas
- Low property taxBetter than only 13% of metro areas
- State infrastructureBetter than only 15% of metro areas
- Local economyBetter than only 16% of metro areas
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 18% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Scranton
A household needs to earn about $55,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Scranton home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $69,761, 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 Scranton's effective rate of 1.46%, 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 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Scranton
Scranton 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 Scranton.
Who works in Scranton, and how
Work in Scranton centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Scranton
Scranton has more restaurants and bars per resident than 67% of metro areas. That concentrates in some parts of Scranton and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Scranton growing, and who is moving in?
Scranton has grown about 2% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from New York, NY.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Scranton go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Scranton, month by month
Scranton sees roughly 70 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 38, with lows near 21. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 38° | 30° | 21° |
| April | 65° | 51° | 39° |
| July | 87° | 75° | 63° |
| October | 67° | 55° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Scranton
The nearest airport, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International, is about 6 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Newark Liberty International, about 92 miles away.
The best schools in and around Scranton
Schools across Scranton average a B, better than 79% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Moscow El SchA+ · 80% proficient
- Frances Willard #32A+ · 75% proficient
- Isaac Tripp El SchA+ · 75% proficient
Top middle schools
- Abington Heights MsA− · 53% proficient
- Pittston Area MsC− · 30% proficient
- Northeast Intrmd SchC− · 30% proficient
Top high schools
- Pittston Area ShsA+ · 98% proficient
- North Pocono HsA+ · 95% proficient
- Abington Heights HsA+ · 83% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Scranton school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Scranton 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 Scranton against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Scranton suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 11% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Scranton
Is Scranton a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Scranton ranks 216th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on walkability, big-city access, and tree cover, and lowest on noise and property taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Scranton expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $191,227. The overall cost of living runs about 15% below the national average. Set against a $69,761 median income, cost of living beats 31% of metro areas.
Is Scranton safe?
Scranton is safer than 48% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $299 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Scranton?
July highs average about 87 degrees, and January highs near 38 with lows near 21. That works out to about 70 pleasant days a year, more than 21% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Scranton?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Dallas, Shavertown & Hunlock Creek, Dalton & Factoryville, and Tunkhannock. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Scranton good for families?
Schools beat 79% of metro areas, crime safety beats 48%, and childcare runs $863 a month.
Is Scranton good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 31% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 85% of metro areas. About 11% of workers already work from home.
Compare Scranton with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Scranton. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Scranton 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.
Scranton detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Scranton: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Scranton: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Scranton: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Scranton: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Scranton 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.