Best PlacesSylvania, PA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Sylvania, 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.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Sylvania ranks 21,744th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores best on good schools, and the weather ranks lowest.

#21,744
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 Sylvania

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Sylvania 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.

Sylvania's strengths and weaknesses

Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Sylvania with other towns.

Where Sylvania ranks high

  • School gradeA−, better than 88% of towns
  • Air qualityBetter than 81% of towns
  • Internet speedBetter than 79% of towns
  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than 74% of towns
  • BikingBetter than 73% of towns

Where Sylvania ranks low

  • Nice weatherabout 65 pleasant days a year, better than only 15% of towns
  • State infrastructureBetter than only 19% of towns
  • Tree shadeBetter than only 23% of towns
  • Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 23% of towns
  • State fiscal healthBetter than only 27% of towns

What it costs to buy a home in Sylvania

A household needs to earn about $56,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Sylvania home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $68,503, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$56,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$1,318
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $208,907 home
Median rent
$859
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$1,065
Property tax$183
Homeowners insurance$70

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 Sylvania's effective rate of 1.05%, 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 10 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 Sylvania

Sylvania runs older than the country.

Median age
44
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
24%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.5
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1823%
18 to 3416%
35 to 4918%
50 to 6419%
65 and older24%

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


Who works in Sylvania, and how

Work in Sylvania centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.

Work from home
5%
below the national average
Unemployment
0.0%
below the national average
Job growth
+1.3%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Manufacturing19%
Health care & social14%
Transportation & warehousing12%
Retail trade10%
Education10%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 91%
  • Work from home 5%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 4%

Life in Sylvania

The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Sylvania.


What the weather is like in Sylvania, month by month

Sylvania sees roughly 65 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 38, with lows near 18. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January38°28°18°
April62°47°34°
July87°72°58°
October67°53°41°

Flying in and out of Sylvania

The nearest airport, Elmira/Corning Regional, is about 25 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Philadelphia International, about 158 miles away.

Nearest airport
ELM
Elmira/Corning Regional, about 25 miles
Airport size
Nonhub
225th-busiest in the US, 7 nonstop destinations
Average drive
35 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Sylvania

Schools across Sylvania average an A−, better than 88% of towns.

Top elementary schools

Top high schools

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


Sylvania 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 Sylvania against the other 50,332 towns.


Common questions about living in Sylvania

Is Sylvania a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Sylvania ranks 21,744th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on good schools, clean air, and fast internet, and lowest on the weather and state infrastructure. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Sylvania expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $208,907. The overall cost of living runs about 1% above the national average. Set against a $68,503 median income, cost of living beats 23% of towns.

Is Sylvania safe?

Yes, Sylvania is safer than 66% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $214 per resident a year.


Compare Sylvania with other towns


Sources and methodology

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

Sylvania detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

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

Sylvania 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.