Best PlacesSmithville Center, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Smithville Center, 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.
Smithville Center ranks 16,250th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low crime by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Smithville Center
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.
Smithville Center's strengths and weaknesses
Where Smithville Center ranks high
- Crime safetyBetter than 99% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 93% of towns
- School gradeA−, better than 92% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 88% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 86% of towns
Where Smithville Center ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 2% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 5% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 10% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 12% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 15% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Smithville Center
A household needs to earn about $52,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Smithville Center home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $71,905, 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 Smithville Center's effective rate of 2.15%, 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 Smithville Center
Smithville Center runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Smithville Center.
Who works in Smithville Center, and how
Work in Smithville Center centers on manufacturing and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 88%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Smithville Center
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Smithville Center.
What the weather is like in Smithville Center, month by month
Smithville Center sees roughly 80 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 degrees. January highs sit near 33, with lows near 17. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 33° | 25° | 17° |
| April | 58° | 45° | 34° |
| July | 82° | 70° | 60° |
| October | 62° | 51° | 42° |
Flying in and out of Smithville Center
The nearest airport, Greater Binghamton/Edwin A Link Field, is about 19 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Newark Liberty International, about 144 miles away.
The best schools in and around Smithville Center
Schools across Smithville Center average an A−, better than 92% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Oxford Academy Primary SchoolB+ · 55% proficient
Top middle schools
- Greene Middle SchoolA− · 55% proficient
- Oxford Academy Middle SchoolC · 33% proficient
Top high schools
- Greene High SchoolA+ · 96% proficient
- Oxford Academy High SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Smithville Center school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Smithville Center 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 Smithville Center against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Smithville Center
Is Smithville Center a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Smithville Center ranks 16,250th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low crime, heat safety, and good schools, and lowest on property taxes and cell coverage. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Smithville Center expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $169,041. The overall cost of living runs about 14% below the national average. Set against a $71,905 median income, cost of living beats 54% of towns.
Is Smithville Center safe?
Yes, Smithville Center is safer than 99% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $129 per resident a year.
Compare Smithville Center with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Smithville Center. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Smithville Center 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.
Smithville Center detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Smithville Center: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Smithville Center: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Smithville Center: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Smithville Center: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Smithville Center 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.