Best PlacesShushan, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Shushan, 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.
Shushan ranks 8,713th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on tree cover by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Shushan
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.
Shushan's strengths and weaknesses
Where Shushan ranks high
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 93% of towns
- School gradeA, better than 91% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 90% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 88% of towns
Where Shushan ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 5% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 10% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 15% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,088 a month, better than only 18% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Shushan
A household needs to earn about $69,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Shushan home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $95,102, 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 Shushan's effective rate of 1.78%, 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 Shushan
Shushan 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 Shushan.
Who works in Shushan, and how
Work in Shushan centers on professional & technical and construction. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 64%
- Work from home 32%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Shushan
Shushan has more restaurants and bars per resident than 99% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Shushan and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Shushan, month by month
Shushan sees roughly 71 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 35, with lows near 16. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 35° | 26° | 16° |
| April | 60° | 46° | 34° |
| July | 84° | 71° | 58° |
| October | 65° | 52° | 40° |
Flying in and out of Shushan
The nearest airport, Rutland/Southern Vermont Regional, is about 35 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Bradley International, about 87 miles away.
The best schools in and around Shushan
Schools across Shushan average an A, better than 91% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Salem Elementary SchoolB+ · 55% proficient
- Cambridge Elementary SchoolB+ · 55% proficient
Top high schools
- Cambridge Junior-senior High SchoolA · 70% proficient
- Salem High SchoolA · 68% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Shushan school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Shushan 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 Shushan against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Shushan
Is Shushan a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Shushan ranks 8,713th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on tree cover, clean air, and good schools, and lowest on property taxes and empty homes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Shushan expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $232,172. The overall cost of living runs about 8% below the national average. Set against a $95,102 median income, cost of living beats 82% of towns.
Is Shushan safe?
Yes, Shushan is safer than 85% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $201 per resident a year.
Compare Shushan with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Shushan. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Shushan 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.
Shushan detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Shushan: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Shushan: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Shushan: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Shushan: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Shushan 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.