Do you like your neighborhood?
Is it friendly, and where everyone knows their neighbors?
No matter if you live in the sticks or in an apartment building in downtown Philadelphia, you have a little pocket that you can call home. And each neighborhood is different.
Smaller neighborhoods usually have obvious benefits — less crime, a slower pace of life, and a lower cost of living. But not all Philadelphia neighborhoods are created equal. Some are better than others. But which ones?
Instead of relying on public opinion and speculation, we wanted to get the facts straight and find out which neighborhoods in Philadelphia are the best. If you’re in one of the places we’re about to highlight, odds are you know you’ve got it made.
Here are the best neighborhoods in Philadelphia for 2019:
- Manayunk (Homes)
- Wharton-Hawthorne-Bella Vista (Homes)
- Fairmount-Spring Garden (Homes)
- City Center West (Homes)
- Schuylkill Southwest (Homes)
- Chestnut Hill (Homes)
- City Center East (Homes)
- Bustleton (Homes)
- Academy Gardens (Homes)
- Roxborough (Homes)
So what’s the best neighborhood to live in Philadelphia for 2019? According to the most recent census data, Manayunk looks to be the best Philadelphia neighborhood to live in.
Read on to see how we determined the places around Philadelphia that deserve a little bragging rights or maybe you’re interested in the worst neighborhoods in Philadelphia.
Once you’re done, you can look at the bottom of the story for a complete chart of every neighborhood we looked at from best to worst.
For more Pennsylvania reading, check out:
- 10 Best Places To Live In Pennsylvania
- 10 Cheapest Places To Live In Pennsylvania
- These Are The 10 Richest Cities In Pennsylvania
How we determined the best Philadelphia hoods in 2019
In order to rank the best neighborhoods in Philadelphia, we had to determine what criteria defines a “best”.
Using crime, census, and extrapolated BLS data, we arrived at the following set of criteria:
- High incomes
- Low unemployment rates
- Low crime
- High home prices
- High population densities (A proxy for things to do)
We then ranked each neighborhood with scores from 1 to 56 in each category, where 1 was the best.
Next, we averaged the rankings for each neighborhood to create a best neighborhood index.
And finally, we crowned the neighborhood with the lowest best neighborhood index the “Best City Neighborhood In Philadelphia.” We’re lookin’ at you, Manayunk.
Read on below to learn more about what it’s like to live in the best places Philadelphia, Pennsylvania has to offer. Or skip to the end to see the list of all the neighborhoods in the city from best to worst.
/10
Population: 12,005
Rank Last Year: 9 (Up 8)
Median Home Value: $244,671 (9th best)
Median Income: $67,074 (9th best)
More on Manayunk: Homes For Sale | Data
Manayunk is a neighborhood in the northwestern section of the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Located on the banks of the Schuylkill River, it contains the first canal begun in the United States. The area’s name is derived from the language of the Lenape Indians. In 1686-dated papers between William Penn and the Lenape, the Lenape referred to the Schuylkill River as “Manaiung”, their word for “river”, which literally translates as “place to drink”; the word was later altered and adopted as the town’s name.
/10
Population: 29,357
Rank Last Year: 11 (Up 9)
Median Home Value: $268,021 (7th best)
Median Income: $56,818 (17th best)
More on Wharton-Hawthorne-Bella Vista: Homes For Sale | Data
/10
Population: 23,809
Rank Last Year: 6 (Up 3)
Median Home Value: $320,109 (5th best)
Median Income: $72,884 (5th best)
More on Fairmount-Spring Garden: Homes For Sale | Data
Fairmount is a neighborhood within the Greater Center City District of the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its boundaries are north of Spring Garden Street, west of Broad Street, south of Girard Avenue and east of The Schuylkill River. While this may be the most common demarcation, the area’s boundaries fluctuate depending how the neighborhood is defined. Several subdivisions exist within and near these boundaries including: Spring Garden, Franklintown and Francisville. Fairmount is also referred to as the “Art Museum Area,” for its proximity to and association with the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
/10
Population: 32,463
Rank Last Year: 2 (Down 2)
Median Home Value: $446,456 (2nd best)
Median Income: $74,773 (4th best)
More on City Center West: Homes For Sale | Data
/10
Population: 13,322
Rank Last Year: 16 (Up 11)
Median Home Value: $305,539 (6th best)
Median Income: $71,943 (6th best)
More on Schuylkill Southwest: Homes For Sale | Data
/10
Population: 11,011
Rank Last Year: 4 (Down 2)
Median Home Value: $432,092 (3rd best)
Median Income: $100,099 (1st best)
More on Chestnut Hill: Homes For Sale | Data
Chestnut Hill is a neighborhood in the Northwest Philadelphia section of the United States city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is known for its high incomes and real estate values, as well as its private schools.
/10
Population: 26,784
Rank Last Year: 3 (Down 4)
Median Home Value: $481,058 (1st best)
Median Income: $76,360 (3rd best)
More on City Center East: Homes For Sale | Data
/10
Population: 31,993
Rank Last Year: 5 (Down 3)
Median Home Value: $235,589 (10th best)
Median Income: $59,747 (15th best)
More on Bustleton: Homes For Sale | Data
The Bustleton section of Northeast Philadelphia is located in the Far Northeast, north of Rhawnhurst and Fox Chase and south of Somerton; sitting between Roosevelt Boulevard to the east, the city boundary to the west, Red Lion Road to the north, and Pennypack Park to the south, it is centered at the intersection of Grant Avenue and Bustleton Avenue and is completely included in the 19115 postal zip code.
/10
Population: 27,044
Rank Last Year: 15 (Up 6)
Median Home Value: $206,228 (18th best)
Median Income: $60,948 (12th best)
More on Academy Gardens: Homes For Sale | Data
/10
Population: 31,063
Rank Last Year: 7 (Down 3)
Median Home Value: $229,678 (12th best)
Median Income: $69,711 (7th best)
More on Roxborough: Homes For Sale | Data
Roxborough is a neighborhood in the Northwest section of the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is bordered to the southwest, along the Schuylkill River, by the neighborhood of Manayunk, along the northeast by the Wissahickon Creek section of Fairmount Park, and to the southeast by the neighborhood of East Falls. Beyond Roxborough to the northwest is Montgomery County. Roxborough’s zip code is 19128. Most of Roxborough is in Philadelphia’s 21st Ward.
Putting A Bow On Our Analysis Of The Best Neighborhoods In Philadelphia
If you’re measuring the neighborhoods in Philadelphia where crime is low and everyone wants to live, this is an accurate list.
As we mentioned earlier, the neighborhoods in Philadelphia aren’t all good. Tioga-Nicetown takes the title of the worst neighborhood to live in Philadelphia.
We ranked the neighborhoods from best to worst in the chart below.
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