Best PlacesSelea, PA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Selea, 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.
Selea ranks 19,216th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low crime by a wide margin, and cell coverage ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Selea
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.
Selea's strengths and weaknesses
Where Selea ranks high
- Crime safetyBetter than 96% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 88% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 84% of towns
- QuietBetter than 81% of towns
Where Selea ranks low
- Cell coverageBetter than only 4% of towns
- Short commute36.9 minutes each way, better than only 10% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 19% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Selea
A household needs to earn about $52,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Selea home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $71,494, 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 Selea's effective rate of 0.86%, 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 Selea
Selea 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 Selea.
Who works in Selea, and how
Work in Selea centers on manufacturing and construction. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 80%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 11%
Life in Selea
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Selea.
What the weather is like in Selea, month by month
Selea sees roughly 72 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 39, with lows near 21. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 39° | 30° | 21° |
| April | 65° | 51° | 39° |
| July | 86° | 73° | 62° |
| October | 68° | 55° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Selea
The nearest airport, Altoona/Blair County, is about 21 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Washington Dulles International, about 87 miles away.
The best schools in and around Selea
Schools across Selea average a B, better than 73% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Shade Gap El SchA+ · 90% proficient
- Spring Farms El SchA− · 60% proficient
Top high schools
- Southern Huntingdon Co Hs/msB · 50% proficient
- Forbes Road JshsC · 34% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Selea school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Selea 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 Selea against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Selea
Is Selea a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Selea ranks 19,216th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low crime, tree cover, and low disaster risk, and lowest on cell coverage and long commutes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Selea expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $198,343. The overall cost of living runs about 12% below the national average. Set against a $71,494 median income, cost of living beats 52% of towns.
Is Selea safe?
Yes, Selea is safer than 96% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $141 per resident a year.
Compare Selea with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Selea. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Selea 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.
Selea detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Selea: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Selea: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Selea: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Selea: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Selea 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.