Best PlacesWatertown, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Watertown 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 wtrtwnguy from Akron, OH, United States, CC BY-SA 2.0, via commons
Watertown ranks 181st of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on internet speeds and empty homes. It does better on quiet, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Watertown 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 Watertown
The towns and districts of the Watertown 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.
Adams & Sackets Harbor
More residents vote, it is quieter, and health care is easier to reach.
Dexter
Fewer households have young kids and more homes sit empty.
Theresa
Prices have run up less, though biking is worse.
Downtown Watertown
Tree cover is thicker and streets are more walkable.
Fort Drum & Carthage
Commutes are shorter, though homes cost more.
Clayton
Schools score higher, though crime runs higher.
Calcium
Incomes run lower and local pay stretches less far.
Scores across Watertown run from about the 12th to the 83rd percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Watertown's strengths and weaknesses
Watertown lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Quiet is the standout, in the top 2% of metro areas. Heat safety and low disaster risk follow.
The one real hole is internet speeds, near the bottom of the country. Empty homes and the cost of living against local pay also cost it ground. The detail is below, and the map is where it turns into a choice of neighborhood rather than just a place.
Where Watertown ranks high
- QuietBetter than 98% of metro areas
- Heat safetyBetter than 98% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than 95% of metro areas
- School gradeB+, better than 94% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than 94% of metro areas
Where Watertown ranks low
- Internet speedBetter than only 2% of metro areas
- Low vacancyBetter than only 7% of metro areas
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 9% 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 Watertown
A household needs to earn about $54,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Watertown home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $69,549, 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 Watertown's effective rate of 1.34%, 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 Watertown
Watertown runs younger 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 Watertown.
Who works in Watertown, and how
Work in Watertown centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 85%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Watertown
Watertown has more restaurants and bars per resident than 93% of metro areas and more parkland per resident than 99% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Watertown and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Watertown growing, and who is moving in?
Watertown has lost about 4% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from New York, NY.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Watertown go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Watertown, month by month
Watertown sees roughly 71 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 33, with lows near 13. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 33° | 23° | 13° |
| April | 56° | 44° | 33° |
| July | 83° | 72° | 59° |
| October | 63° | 52° | 40° |
Flying in and out of Watertown
The nearest airport, Watertown International, is about 6 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Bradley International, about 215 miles away.
The best schools in and around Watertown
Schools across Watertown average a B+, better than 94% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Bashaw Elementary SchoolA+ · 75% proficient
- Lowville Elementary SchoolA · 70% proficient
- Guardino Elementary SchoolA · 68% proficient
Top middle schools
- Thousand Islands Middle SchoolA · 60% proficient
- Lowville Middle SchoolB+ · 52% proficient
- Clarke Middle SchoolC+ · 37% proficient
Top high schools
- Indian River High SchoolA+ · 98% proficient
- Lowville High SchoolA+ · 94% proficient
- Watertown Senior High SchoolA+ · 91% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Watertown school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Watertown 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 Watertown against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Watertown suits
Common questions about living in Watertown
Is Watertown a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Watertown ranks 181st of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on quiet, heat safety, and low disaster risk, and lowest on internet speeds and empty homes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Watertown expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $192,870. The overall cost of living runs about 6% below the national average. Set against a $69,549 median income, cost of living beats 9% of metro areas.
Is Watertown safe?
Yes, Watertown is safer than 82% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $272 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Watertown?
July highs average about 83 degrees, and January highs near 33 with lows near 13. That works out to about 71 pleasant days a year, more than 25% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Watertown?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Adams & Sackets Harbor, Dexter, and Theresa. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Watertown good for families?
Schools beat 94% of metro areas, crime safety beats 82%, and childcare runs $1,088 a month.
Is Watertown good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 9% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 2% of metro areas. About 8% of workers already work from home.
Compare Watertown with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Watertown. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Watertown 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.
Watertown detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Watertown: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Watertown: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Watertown: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Watertown: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Watertown 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.