Best PlacesSkaneateles, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Skaneateles, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Skaneateles ranks 2,245th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on health care access by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Skaneateles
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.
Skaneateles' strengths and weaknesses
Where Skaneateles ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 99% of towns
- School gradeA+, better than 98% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 97% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 96% of towns
- TransitBetter than 95% of towns
Where Skaneateles ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 9% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,301 a month, better than only 10% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 14% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 14% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 15% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Skaneateles
A household needs to earn about $141,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Skaneateles home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $119,298, so buying stretches a typical household.
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 Skaneateles' effective rate of 1.56%, 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 Skaneateles
Skaneateles 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 Skaneateles.
Who works in Skaneateles, and how
Work in Skaneateles centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 66%
- Work from home 24%
- Transit, walk, or bike 10%
Life in Skaneateles
Skaneateles has more restaurants and bars per resident than 86% of towns and more parkland per resident than 93% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Skaneateles and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Skaneateles, month by month
Skaneateles sees roughly 69 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 36, with lows near 18. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 36° | 27° | 18° |
| April | 60° | 47° | 36° |
| July | 87° | 74° | 63° |
| October | 66° | 54° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Skaneateles
The nearest airport, Syracuse Hancock International, is about 20 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Newark Liberty International, about 193 miles away.
The best schools in and around Skaneateles
Schools across Skaneateles average an A+, better than 98% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- State Street Intermediate SchoolA+ · 84% proficient
- K C Heffernan Elementary SchoolA · 70% proficient
- Tully Elementary SchoolA · 63% proficient
Top middle schools
- Skaneateles Middle SchoolA+ · 78% proficient
- Jordan-elbridge Middle SchoolA · 62% proficient
- C S Driver Middle SchoolA · 59% proficient
Top high schools
- Skaneateles Senior High SchoolA+ · 98% proficient
- Jordan-elbridge High SchoolA+ · 94% proficient
- Marcellus High SchoolA+ · 90% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Skaneateles school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Skaneateles 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 Skaneateles against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Skaneateles
Is Skaneateles a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Skaneateles ranks 2,245th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on health care access, good schools, and low disaster risk, and lowest on property taxes and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Skaneateles expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $489,926. The overall cost of living runs about 24% above the national average. Set against a $119,298 median income, cost of living beats 80% of towns.
Is Skaneateles safe?
Yes, Skaneateles is safer than 83% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $211 per resident a year.
Compare Skaneateles with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Skaneateles. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Skaneateles 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.
Skaneateles detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Skaneateles: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Skaneateles: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Skaneateles: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Skaneateles: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Skaneateles 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.