Best PlacesSyracuse, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Syracuse metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by John Marino from Pittsburgh, CC BY 2.0, via commons
Syracuse ranks 160th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on property taxes and internet speeds. It does better on low disaster risk, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Syracuse metro
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.
The best areas in Syracuse
The towns and districts of the Syracuse metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Camillus, Skaneateles & Marcellus
Crime runs lower, more residents vote, and more adults hold degrees.
Manlius, Fayetteville & Cazenovia
It is quieter and tree cover is thicker.
Baldwinsville & Fairmount
Fewer homes sit empty, though streets are more car-dependent.
Cicero, Brewerton & Clay
Incomes run higher, though biking is worse.
East Syracuse, Oneida & Canastota
Prices have run up less, though transit reaches fewer jobs.
Oswego & Fulton
Scores close to East Syracuse, Oneida & Canastota, except that more households have young kids here.
Constantia
Homes cost less, though commutes are longer.
Downtown Syracuse
Local pay stretches less far and health care is harder to reach.
Jamesville, Tully & Nedrow
Schools score lower.
Syracuse shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 4% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Syracuse's strengths and weaknesses
Syracuse lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Low disaster risk, good schools, and clean air carry most of that.
The one real hole is property taxes, near the bottom of the country. Internet speeds and car insurance costs also cost it ground. Cost swings more from one part of Syracuse to another than it does between Syracuse and its neighbors, which the map below shows.
Where Syracuse ranks high
- Disaster safetyBetter than 97% of metro areas
- School gradeB+, better than 95% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than 94% of metro areas
- Healthcare accessBetter than 86% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than 85% of metro areas
Where Syracuse ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than only 4% of metro areas
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 14% of metro areas
- State infrastructureBetter than only 15% of metro areas
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 16% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Syracuse
A household needs to earn about $61,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Syracuse home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $81,517, 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 Syracuse's effective rate of 2.20%, 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 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Syracuse
Syracuse's age mix sits close to the national median, 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 Syracuse.
Who works in Syracuse, and how
Work in Syracuse centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 79%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 9%
Life in Syracuse
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Syracuse.
Is Syracuse growing, and who is moving in?
Syracuse has lost about 1% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from New York, NY.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Syracuse go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Syracuse, month by month
Syracuse sees roughly 70 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 Syracuse
The nearest airport, Syracuse Hancock International, is about 5 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Newark Liberty International, about 192 miles away.
The best schools in and around Syracuse
Schools across Syracuse average a B+, better than 95% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Mott Road Elementary SchoolA+ · 89% proficient
- Enders Road Elementary SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
- Tecumseh Elementary SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
Top middle schools
- Eagle Hill Middle SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
- Skaneateles Middle SchoolA+ · 78% proficient
- Wellwood Middle SchoolA+ · 69% proficient
Top high schools
- Fayetteville-manlius Senior High SchoolA+ · 99% proficient
- Skaneateles Senior High SchoolA+ · 98% proficient
- Westhill High SchoolA+ · 98% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Syracuse school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Syracuse 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 Syracuse against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Syracuse suits
Common questions about living in Syracuse
Is Syracuse a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Syracuse ranks 160th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on low disaster risk, good schools, and clean air, and lowest on property taxes and internet speeds. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Syracuse expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $196,842. The overall cost of living runs about 4% below the national average. Set against a $81,517 median income, cost of living beats 41% of metro areas.
Is Syracuse safe?
Yes, Syracuse is safer than 55% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $339 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Syracuse?
July highs average about 87 degrees, and January highs near 36 with lows near 18. That works out to about 70 pleasant days a year, more than 23% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Syracuse?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Camillus, Skaneateles & Marcellus, Manlius, Fayetteville & Cazenovia, and Baldwinsville & Fairmount. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Syracuse good for families?
Schools beat 95% of metro areas, crime safety beats 55%, and childcare runs $1,253 a month.
Is Syracuse good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 41% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 4% of metro areas. About 12% of workers already work from home.
Compare Syracuse with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Syracuse. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Syracuse 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.
Syracuse detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Syracuse: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Syracuse: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Syracuse: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Syracuse: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Syracuse 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.