Best PlacesWhite Mills, PA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around White Mills, 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.

See the map of best neighborhoods

White Mills ranks 17,841st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on transit by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.

#17,841
of 50,333 towns
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 50,333 towns
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in White Mills

Map of the best neighborhoods in the White Mills area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

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.

White Mills' strengths and weaknesses

Top 5%Transit
Top 10%Big-city access
Top 10%Good schools
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare White Mills with other towns.

Where White Mills ranks high

  • TransitBetter than 96% of towns
  • Big-city accessBetter than 93% of towns
  • School gradeA, better than 91% of towns
  • Air qualityBetter than 86% of towns
  • Heat safetyBetter than 80% of towns

Where White Mills ranks low

  • Housing crash safetyBetter than only 12% of towns
  • Household income$53,162 median, better than only 16% of towns
  • Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 19% of towns
  • State infrastructureBetter than only 19% of towns
  • Nice weatherabout 69 pleasant days a year, better than only 24% of towns

What it costs to buy a home in White Mills

A household needs to earn about $65,000 a year to comfortably buy the median White Mills home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $53,162, so buying stretches a typical household.

Income to buy the median home
$65,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$1,516
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $241,015 home
Median rent
$1,086
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$1,229
Property tax$207
Homeowners insurance$80

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 White Mills' effective rate of 1.03%, 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 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in White Mills

White Mills runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.

Median age
47
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
25%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.3
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1815%
18 to 3423%
35 to 4919%
50 to 6419%
65 and older25%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for White Mills.


Who works in White Mills, and how

Work in White Mills centers on retail trade and hospitality & food. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
8%
below the national average
Unemployment
1.7%
below the national average
Job growth
+3.0%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Retail trade13%
Hospitality & food12%
Health care & social11%
Education11%
Other services11%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 89%
  • Work from home 8%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 3%

Life in White Mills

The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across White Mills.


What the weather is like in White Mills, month by month

White Mills sees roughly 69 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 35, with lows near 17. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January35°26°17°
April58°45°34°
July83°71°59°
October63°51°41°

Flying in and out of White Mills

The nearest airport, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International, is about 30 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Newark Liberty International, about 79 miles away.

Nearest airport
AVP
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International, about 30 miles
Airport size
Nonhub
189th-busiest in the US, 26 nonstop destinations
Average drive
43 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around White Mills

Schools across White Mills average an A, better than 91% of towns.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every White Mills school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


White Mills 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 White Mills against the other 50,332 towns.


Common questions about living in White Mills

Is White Mills a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, White Mills ranks 17,841st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on transit, big-city access, and good schools, and lowest on an overheated housing market and low incomes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is White Mills expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $241,015. The overall cost of living runs about 11% below the national average. Set against a $53,162 median income, cost of living beats 19% of towns.

Is White Mills safe?

Yes, White Mills is safer than 75% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $198 per resident a year.


Compare White Mills with other towns


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to White Mills. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in White Mills 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.

White Mills detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for White Mills: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in White Mills: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of White Mills: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in White Mills: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

White Mills detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.