Best PlacesSidney, AL Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Sidney, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Sidney ranks 44,963rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on tree cover by a wide margin, and disaster risk is the weak spot.

#44,963
of 50,333 towns
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 50,333 towns
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Sidney

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Sidney area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

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.

Sidney's strengths and weaknesses

Top 10%Tree cover
Top 10%Low property taxes
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Sidney with other towns.

Where Sidney ranks high

  • Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
  • Low property taxBetter than 93% of towns
  • State infrastructureBetter than 89% of towns
  • QuietBetter than 88% of towns
  • Cheap childcare$619 a month, better than 77% of towns

Where Sidney ranks low

  • Disaster safetyBetter than only 4% of towns
  • Household income$48,369 median, better than only 10% of towns
  • Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 11% of towns
  • Local economyBetter than only 12% of towns
  • Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 12% of towns

What it costs to buy a home in Sidney

A household needs to earn about $46,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Sidney home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $48,369, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$46,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$1,082
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $189,658 home
Median rent
$976
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$967
Property tax$52
Homeowners insurance$63

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 Sidney's effective rate of 0.33%, 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 6 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Sidney

Sidney runs younger than the country, though it still carries a larger-than-average share of residents over 65.

Median age
39
younger than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
22%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.7
near the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1822%
18 to 3421%
35 to 4918%
50 to 6417%
65 and older22%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Sidney.


Who works in Sidney, and how

Work in Sidney centers on manufacturing and construction. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.

Work from home
8%
below the national average
Unemployment
10.7%
above the national average
Job growth
+1.4%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Manufacturing21%
Construction15%
Finance & insurance9%
Public administration8%
Admin & support services8%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 90%
  • Work from home 8%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 2%

Life in Sidney

The coast is about 45 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Sidney, which the map shows.

To the coast
45 min
drive to the nearest ocean beaches

What the weather is like in Sidney, month by month

Sidney sees roughly 87 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 64, with lows near 39. The comfortable stretch runs February through May and October through December.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January64°51°39°
April80°67°55°
July92°81°74°
October84°70°59°

Flying in and out of Sidney

The nearest airport, Mobile Regional, is about 24 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Louis Armstrong New Orleans International, about 138 miles away.

Nearest airport
MOB
Mobile Regional, about 24 miles
Airport size
Nonhub
169th-busiest in the US, 20 nonstop destinations
Average drive
34 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Sidney

Schools across Sidney average a D+, better than 15% of towns.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Sidney school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Sidney 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 Sidney against the other 50,332 towns.


Common questions about living in Sidney

Is Sidney a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Sidney ranks 44,963rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on tree cover, low property taxes, and state infrastructure, and lowest on disaster risk and low incomes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Sidney expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $189,658. The overall cost of living runs about 16% below the national average. Set against a $48,369 median income, cost of living beats 12% of towns.

Is Sidney safe?

Yes, Sidney is safer than 71% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $224 per resident a year.


Compare Sidney with other towns


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Sidney. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Sidney 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.

Sidney detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Sidney: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Sidney: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Sidney: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Sidney: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Sidney detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.