Best PlacesWayne, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Wayne, 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.
Wayne ranks 13,983rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on good schools by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Wayne
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.
Wayne's strengths and weaknesses
Where Wayne ranks high
- School gradeA, better than 94% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 90% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 89% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 87% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 86% of towns
Where Wayne ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 9% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 14% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 15% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,088 a month, better than only 18% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Wayne
A household needs to earn about $89,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Wayne home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $87,529; 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 Wayne's effective rate of 1.56%, 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 Wayne
Wayne 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 Wayne.
Who works in Wayne, and how
Work in Wayne centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 81%
- Work from home 13%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Wayne
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Wayne.
What the weather is like in Wayne, month by month
Wayne 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 Wayne
The nearest airport, Elmira/Corning Regional, is about 24 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Newark Liberty International, about 195 miles away.
The best schools in and around Wayne
Schools across Wayne average an A, better than 94% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Penn Yan Elementary SchoolA+ · 73% proficient
- Glenn H Curtiss Memorial SchoolA · 68% proficient
- Dundee Elementary SchoolB+ · 53% proficient
Top middle schools
- Penn Yan Middle SchoolA− · 58% proficient
Top high schools
- Penn Yan AcademyA+ · 98% proficient
- Hammondsport Junior-senior High SchoolA · 73% proficient
- Dundee Junior-senior High SchoolA− · 60% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Wayne school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Wayne 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 Wayne against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Wayne
Is Wayne a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Wayne ranks 13,983rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on good schools, an educated workforce, and low crime, and lowest on property taxes and empty homes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Wayne expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $308,547. The overall cost of living runs about 18% above the national average. Set against a $87,529 median income, cost of living beats 41% of towns.
Is Wayne safe?
Yes, Wayne is safer than 89% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $190 per resident a year.
Compare Wayne with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Wayne. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Wayne 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.
Wayne detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Wayne: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Wayne: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Wayne: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Wayne: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Wayne 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.