Best PlacesUpper Lisle, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Upper Lisle, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Upper Lisle ranks 29,663rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on heat safety by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Upper Lisle
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.
Upper Lisle's strengths and weaknesses
Where Upper Lisle ranks high
- Heat safetyBetter than 96% of towns
- School gradeA, better than 94% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than 90% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 87% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 81% of towns
Where Upper Lisle ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 3% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 8% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 14% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 14% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 15% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Upper Lisle
A household needs to earn about $35,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Upper Lisle home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $69,012, 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 Upper Lisle's effective rate of 1.98%, 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 5 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Upper Lisle
Upper Lisle runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Upper Lisle.
Who works in Upper Lisle, and how
Work in Upper Lisle centers on education and health care & social. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 7%
- Transit, walk, or bike 9%
Life in Upper Lisle
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Upper Lisle.
What the weather is like in Upper Lisle, month by month
Upper Lisle sees roughly 79 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 Upper Lisle
The nearest airport, Greater Binghamton/Edwin A Link Field, is about 12 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Newark Liberty International, about 148 miles away.
The best schools in and around Upper Lisle
Schools across Upper Lisle average an A, better than 94% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Cincinnatus Elementary SchoolA+ · 80% proficient
- Caryl E Adams Primary SchoolA · 65% proficient
Top middle schools
- Tioughnioga Riverside AcademyA− · 54% proficient
- Cincinnatus Middle SchoolB+ · 48% proficient
Top high schools
- Whitney Point Senior High SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
- Cincinnatus High SchoolA · 75% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Upper Lisle school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Upper Lisle 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 Upper Lisle against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Upper Lisle
Is Upper Lisle a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Upper Lisle ranks 29,663rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on heat safety, good schools, and few empty homes, and lowest on property taxes and a weak job market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Upper Lisle expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $116,255. The overall cost of living runs about 9% below the national average. Set against a $69,012 median income, cost of living beats 37% of towns.
Is Upper Lisle safe?
Upper Lisle is safer than 29% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $385 per resident a year.
Compare Upper Lisle with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Upper Lisle. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Upper Lisle 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.
Upper Lisle detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Upper Lisle: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Upper Lisle: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Upper Lisle: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Upper Lisle: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Upper Lisle 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.