Best PlacesStafford, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Stafford, 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.
Stafford ranks 6,621st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low disaster risk by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Stafford
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.
Stafford's strengths and weaknesses
Where Stafford ranks high
- Disaster safetyBetter than 98% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 96% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 94% of towns
- School gradeA, better than 92% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 90% of towns
Where Stafford ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 1% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 12% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 15% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,088 a month, better than only 18% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Stafford
A household needs to earn about $58,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Stafford home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $91,857, 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 Stafford's effective rate of 2.28%, 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 Stafford
Stafford's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Stafford.
Who works in Stafford, and how
Work in Stafford centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 89%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Stafford
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Stafford.
What the weather is like in Stafford, month by month
Stafford sees roughly 70 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 36, with lows near 20. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 36° | 28° | 20° |
| April | 59° | 47° | 36° |
| July | 85° | 73° | 62° |
| October | 66° | 54° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Stafford
The nearest airport, Frederick Douglass/Greater Rochester International, is about 22 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Pittsburgh International, about 205 miles away.
The best schools in and around Stafford
Schools across Stafford average an A, better than 92% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Wolcott Street SchoolA · 70% proficient
- D B Bunce Elementary SchoolA− · 60% proficient
- Byron-bergen Elementary SchoolA− · 59% proficient
Top middle schools
- Batavia Middle SchoolB− · 42% proficient
Top high schools
- Batavia High SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
- Le Roy Junior-senior High SchoolA · 69% proficient
- Byron-bergen Junior/senior High SchoolA− · 60% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Stafford school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Stafford 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 Stafford against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Stafford
Is Stafford a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Stafford ranks 6,621st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low disaster risk, low crime, and health care access, and lowest on property taxes and car insurance costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Stafford expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $184,296. The overall cost of living runs about 9% below the national average. Set against a $91,857 median income, cost of living beats 76% of towns.
Is Stafford safe?
Yes, Stafford is safer than 96% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $153 per resident a year.
Compare Stafford with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Stafford. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Stafford 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.
Stafford detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Stafford: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Stafford: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Stafford: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Stafford: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Stafford 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.