Best PlacesUtica, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Utica 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 Quintin Soloviev, CC BY 4.0, via commons
Utica ranks 158th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on property taxes and internet speeds. It does better on good schools, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Utica 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 Utica
The towns and districts of the Utica 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.
Clinton, Sherrill & Waterville
It is quieter, more adults hold degrees, and local pay stretches further.
New Hartford & Sauquoit
Incomes run higher, though fewer households have young kids.
Boonville & Holland Patent
Tree cover is thicker, though streets are more car-dependent.
Dolgeville
Crime runs lower, though biking is worse.
Rome
Scores close to Dolgeville, except that schools score lower here.
Verona
Scores close to Rome, except that fewer homes sit empty here.
Ilion, Herkimer & Little Falls
Homes cost less and prices have run up less.
Downtown Utica
Fewer residents vote and health care is harder to reach.
Utica shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 8% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Utica's strengths and weaknesses
Utica lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Good schools, clean air, and low disaster risk 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 Utica to another than it does between Utica and its neighbors, which the map below shows.
Where Utica ranks high
- School gradeA−, better than 96% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than 94% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than 86% of metro areas
- WalkabilityBetter than 84% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than 83% of metro areas
Where Utica ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 5% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than only 6% of metro areas
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 15% 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 Utica
A household needs to earn about $53,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Utica home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $75,631, 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 Utica's effective rate of 1.80%, 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 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Utica
Utica 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 Utica.
Who works in Utica, and how
Work in Utica centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 81%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 8%
Life in Utica
Utica has less late-night activity than most metro areas. That concentrates in some parts of Utica and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Utica growing, and who is moving in?
Utica has lost about 3% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from New York, NY.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Utica go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Utica, month by month
Utica sees roughly 68 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 35, with lows near 18. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 35° | 26° | 18° |
| April | 58° | 46° | 35° |
| July | 85° | 72° | 61° |
| October | 64° | 53° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Utica
The nearest airport, Syracuse Hancock International, is about 44 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Bradley International, about 152 miles away.
The best schools in and around Utica
Schools across Utica average an A−, better than 96% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Deerfield Elementary SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
- Hughes Elementary SchoolA+ · 80% proficient
- Poland Elementary SchoolA+ · 80% proficient
Top middle schools
- Whitesboro Middle SchoolA · 64% proficient
- Perry Junior High SchoolA− · 53% proficient
- Holland Patent Middle SchoolB · 45% proficient
Top high schools
- New Hartford Senior High SchoolA+ · 98% proficient
- Whitesboro High SchoolA+ · 95% proficient
- Frankfort-schuyler Central High SchoolA+ · 93% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Utica school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Utica 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 Utica against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Utica suits
Common questions about living in Utica
Is Utica a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Utica ranks 158th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on good schools, clean air, and low disaster risk, 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 Utica expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $177,874. The overall cost of living runs about 11% below the national average. Set against a $75,631 median income, cost of living beats 38% of metro areas.
Is Utica safe?
Yes, Utica is safer than 78% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $284 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Utica?
July highs average about 85 degrees, and January highs near 35 with lows near 18. That works out to about 68 pleasant days a year, more than 17% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Utica?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Clinton, Sherrill & Waterville, New Hartford & Sauquoit, and Boonville & Holland Patent. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Utica good for families?
Schools beat 96% of metro areas, crime safety beats 78%, and childcare runs $1,088 a month.
Is Utica good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 38% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 6% of metro areas. About 11% of workers already work from home.
Compare Utica with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Utica. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Utica 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.
Utica detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Utica: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Utica: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Utica: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Utica: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Utica 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.