Best PlacesUnion Dale, PA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Union Dale, 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.
Union Dale ranks 15,591st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on fast internet by a wide margin, and empty homes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Union Dale
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.
Union Dale's strengths and weaknesses
Where Union Dale ranks high
- Internet speedBetter than 93% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 89% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 89% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 86% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 81% of towns
Where Union Dale ranks low
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 19% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 26% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 70 pleasant days a year, better than only 27% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 27% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Union Dale
A household needs to earn about $68,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Union Dale home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $66,372; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Union Dale's effective rate of 0.83%, 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 Union Dale
Union Dale 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 Union Dale.
Who works in Union Dale, and how
Work in Union Dale centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 85%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Union Dale
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Union Dale.
What the weather is like in Union Dale, month by month
Union Dale sees roughly 70 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 38, with lows near 21. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 38° | 30° | 21° |
| April | 65° | 51° | 39° |
| July | 87° | 75° | 63° |
| October | 67° | 55° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Union Dale
The nearest airport, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International, is about 28 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Newark Liberty International, about 100 miles away.
The best schools in and around Union Dale
Schools across Union Dale average a B, better than 69% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Preston SchA+ · 80% proficient
- Susquehanna Community El SchA · 70% proficient
- Forest City Regional El SchB · 48% proficient
Top middle schools
- Blue Ridge MsB · 44% proficient
Top high schools
- Honesdale HsA · 75% proficient
- Blue Ridge HsB+ · 55% proficient
- Mountain View JshsB+ · 53% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Union Dale school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Union Dale 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 Union Dale against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Union Dale
Is Union Dale a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Union Dale ranks 15,591st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on fast internet, big-city access, and low crime, and lowest on empty homes and state infrastructure. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Union Dale expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $259,481. The overall cost of living runs about 8% below the national average. Set against a $66,372 median income, cost of living beats 36% of towns.
Is Union Dale safe?
Yes, Union Dale is safer than 89% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $158 per resident a year.
Compare Union Dale with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Union Dale. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Union Dale 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.
Union Dale detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Union Dale: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Union Dale: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Union Dale: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Union Dale: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Union Dale 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.