Best PlacesVoak, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Voak, 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.
Voak ranks 17,933rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on good schools by a wide margin, and education levels rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Voak
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.
Voak's strengths and weaknesses
Where Voak ranks high
- School gradeA, better than 97% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 96% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 89% of towns
- BikingBetter than 89% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 82% of towns
Where Voak ranks low
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 1% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 5% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 10% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 15% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 15% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Voak
A household needs to earn about $57,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Voak home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $73,063, 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 Voak's effective rate of 1.53%, 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 6 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Voak
Voak runs younger than the country, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Voak.
Who works in Voak, and how
Work in Voak centers on agriculture & forestry and construction. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 70%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 16%
Life in Voak
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Voak.
What the weather is like in Voak, month by month
Voak sees roughly 98 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 36, with lows near 19. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 36° | 27° | 19° |
| April | 59° | 46° | 36° |
| July | 85° | 73° | 62° |
| October | 65° | 54° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Voak
The nearest airport, Ithaca Tompkins International, is about 38 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Newark Liberty International, about 207 miles away.
The best schools in and around Voak
Schools across Voak average an A, better than 97% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Penn Yan Elementary SchoolA+ · 73% proficient
Top middle schools
- Penn Yan Middle SchoolA− · 58% proficient
- Marcus Whitman Middle SchoolB+ · 48% proficient
Top high schools
- Marcus Whitman High SchoolA+ · 98% proficient
- Penn Yan AcademyA+ · 98% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Voak school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Voak 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 Voak against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Voak
Is Voak a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Voak ranks 17,933rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on good schools, low disaster risk, and clean air, and lowest on education levels and civic engagement. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Voak expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $196,900. The overall cost of living runs about 8% above the national average. Set against a $73,063 median income, cost of living beats 18% of towns.
Is Voak safe?
Yes, Voak is safer than 69% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $245 per resident a year.
Compare Voak with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Voak. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Voak 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.
Voak detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Voak: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Voak: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Voak: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Voak: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Voak 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.