Best PlacesShippensburg, PA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Shippensburg, 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.
Shippensburg ranks 13,940th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on good schools by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Shippensburg
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.
Shippensburg's strengths and weaknesses
Where Shippensburg ranks high
- School gradeA+, better than 96% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 89% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 88% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 88% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 88% of towns
Where Shippensburg ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 5% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 19% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 22% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 23% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 24% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Shippensburg
A household needs to earn about $63,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Shippensburg home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $70,033, 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 Shippensburg's effective rate of 1.13%, 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 10 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Shippensburg
Shippensburg runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Shippensburg.
Who works in Shippensburg, and how
Work in Shippensburg centers on retail trade and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 77%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 13%
Life in Shippensburg
Shippensburg has more restaurants and bars per resident than 65% of towns and more parkland per resident than 79% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Shippensburg and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Shippensburg, month by month
Shippensburg sees roughly 70 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 43, with lows near 25. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 43° | 34° | 25° |
| April | 68° | 55° | 43° |
| July | 90° | 79° | 68° |
| October | 71° | 59° | 48° |
Flying in and out of Shippensburg
The nearest airport, Hagerstown Regional/Richard A Henson Field, is about 26 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall, about 76 miles away.
The best schools in and around Shippensburg
Schools across Shippensburg average an A+, better than 96% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Shippensburg Intrm SchA+ · 81% proficient
- Oak Flat El SchA · 72% proficient
- Scotland El SchB · 50% proficient
Top middle schools
- Shippensburg Area MsB · 47% proficient
- Big Spring MsB · 43% proficient
- Chambersburg Area Ms - NorthB− · 39% proficient
Top high schools
- Shippensburg Area ShsA+ · 85% proficient
- Big Spring HsB · 48% proficient
- Chambersburg Area ShsC+ · 38% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Shippensburg school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Shippensburg 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 Shippensburg against the other 50,332 towns.
Who Shippensburg suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 10% already work from home.
Retirees
Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.
Common questions about living in Shippensburg
Is Shippensburg a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Shippensburg ranks 13,940th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on good schools, big-city access, and low disaster risk, and lowest on noise and state infrastructure. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Shippensburg expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $231,812. The overall cost of living runs about 7% below the national average. Set against a $70,033 median income, cost of living beats 38% of towns.
Is Shippensburg safe?
Yes, Shippensburg is safer than 79% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $199 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Shippensburg?
July highs average about 90 degrees, and January highs near 43 with lows near 25. That works out to about 70 pleasant days a year, more than 25% of towns.
Is Shippensburg good for families?
Schools beat 96% of towns, crime safety beats 79%, and childcare runs $935 a month.
Compare Shippensburg with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Shippensburg. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Shippensburg 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.
Shippensburg detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Shippensburg: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Shippensburg: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Shippensburg: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Shippensburg: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Shippensburg 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.