These Are The 10 Best Neighborhoods In Philadelphia, PA For 2018

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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 2018:

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.

If you’re thinking of moving to elsewhere in Pennsylvania check out:

How do you determine the top neighborhoods in Philadelphia for 2018?

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)

10 Most Dangerous Cities In Pennsylvania

We limited the analysis to neighborhoods with over 1,000 people.

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, Riverfront.

Read on below to learn more about what it’s like to live in the best places Philadelphia has to offer. Or skip to the end to see the list of all the neighborhoods in the city from best to worst.

1. Riverfront

Population: 2,051
Median Income: $104,493
Median Home Value: $368,800

More on Riverfront: Real Estate | Data

2. City Center West

Population: 31,629
Median Income: $70,269
Median Home Value: $391,600

More on City Center West: Real Estate | Data

3. City Center East

Population: 24,923
Median Income: $71,200
Median Home Value: $414,900

More on City Center East: Real Estate | Data

4. Chestnut Hill

Source: Public domain

Population: 10,620
Median Income: $91,838
Median Home Value: $412,617

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.
More on Chestnut Hill: Real Estate | Data

5. Bustleton

Source: Flickr User Violette79 | CC BY 2.0

Population: 32,066
Median Income: $63,135
Median Home Value: $238,158

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.
More on Bustleton: Real Estate | Data

6. Fairmount-Spring Garden

Source: Wikipedia User | CC BY-SA 2.0

Population: 23,649
Median Income: $72,173
Median Home Value: $329,441

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.
More on Fairmount-Spring Garden: Real Estate | Data

7. Roxborough

Source: Wikipedia User | CC BY-SA 3.0

Population: 31,398
Median Income: $64,652
Median Home Value: $232,491

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.
More on Roxborough: Real Estate | Data

8. Somerton

Source: Public domain

Population: 30,261
Median Income: $53,236
Median Home Value: $239,807

Somerton is a neighborhood in the Far Northeast section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The neighborhood is bounded by Red Lion Road on the south, Roosevelt Boulevard on the east, East County Line Road and Poquessing Creek on the north, and the Philadelphia County / Montgomery County line on the west. Somerton is adjacent to the Philadelphia neighborhoods of Bustleton, Normandy, and Byberry, the townships of Bensalem and Lower Southampton in Bucks County, and Lower Moreland Township in Montgomery County. The area is home to a large and fast-growing foreign-born population, most notably of Russian and Indian immigrants.
More on Somerton: Real Estate | Data

9. Manayunk

Source: Public domain

Population: 11,654
Median Income: $64,142
Median Home Value: $232,893

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.
More on Manayunk: Real Estate | Data

10. Mount Airy

Source: Public domain

Population: 33,188
Median Income: $53,800
Median Home Value: $225,813

Mount Airy is a neighborhood of Northwest Philadelphia in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania.
More on Mount Airy: Real Estate | Data

Putting A Bow On Our Analysis Of Philadelphia

If you’re measuring the neighborhoods in Philadelphia where crime is low and everyone wants to live, this is an accurate list.

If you’re curious, here are the worst places in Philadelphia:

Hartranft
North Central
Belmont

For more reading, check out:

Detailed List Of The Best Neighborhoods In Philadelphia

Rank	Neighborhood	Population	Home Prices	Crimes Per 100k	Unemployment Rate
1	Riverfront	2,051	$368,800	1,652	5.1%
2	City Center West	31,629	$391,600	1,652	3.4%
3	City Center East	24,923	$414,900	1,652	3.7%
4	Chestnut Hill	10,620	$412,617	1,652	3.8%
5	Bustleton	32,066	$238,158	2,657	5.1%
6	Fairmount-Spring Garden	23,649	$329,441	1,652	5.5%
7	Roxborough	31,398	$232,491	2,085	5.3%
8	Somerton	30,261	$239,807	2,724	5.6%
9	Manayunk	11,654	$232,893	2,153	3.5%
10	Mount Airy	33,188	$225,813	2,362	6.8%
11	Wharton-Hawthorne-Bella Vista	28,382	$250,145	2,222	5.7%
12	East Falls	10,050	$211,000	1,918	5.9%
13	Byberry	16,222	$224,538	2,973	6.7%
14	Torresdale	31,158	$197,736	3,277	6.5%
15	Academy Gardens	27,635	$203,561	3,209	7.3%
16	Schuylkill Southwest	12,698	$282,928	1,652	7.1%
17	Fox Chase	23,242	$212,867	3,246	7.7%
18	Rhawnhurst	29,568	$197,713	3,656	6.9%
19	Pennsport-Whitman-Queen	29,563	$206,369	2,931	9.3%
20	Marconi Plaza-Packer Park	5,354	$104,790	3,961	5.8%
21	Kensington	22,965	$117,376	5,148	10.5%
22	Oak Lane	42,724	$134,179	4,589	10.2%
23	Holmesburry-Torresdale	26,272	$140,370	4,468	6.8%
24	Fishtown	16,734	$215,794	2,405	6.5%
25	Richmond	42,683	$94,333	5,438	12.0%
26	Mayfield	31,441	$143,552	4,549	8.5%
27	South Philadelphia	24,648	$161,419	4,088	8.4%
28	Girard Estates	21,603	$165,891	3,826	7.5%
29	Wynnefield	30,183	$131,336	4,829	6.6%
30	Strawberry Mansion	19,989	$71,428	5,698	10.6%
31	Olney	37,855	$92,566	5,735	11.8%
32	Wissanoning	27,295	$113,090	5,144	9.6%
33	Eastwick	9,951	$109,310	5,048	11.1%
34	Summerdale	40,498	$121,532	5,243	11.2%
35	Alleghany West	19,321	$46,204	6,422	10.6%
36	Oxford Circle	61,539	$131,371	5,062	9.1%
37	Cedar Brook	26,983	$150,293	4,279	9.5%
38	Cobbs Creek	81,648	$142,408	4,804	7.6%
39	Hunting Park	23,038	$58,558	6,560	12.7%
40	Tioga-Nicetown	18,230	$59,538	6,237	13.7%
41	Germantown	69,018	$106,217	5,385	11.0%
42	Point Breeze	23,183	$124,309	4,847	8.1%
43	Poplar-Ludlow-Yorktowne	17,981	$201,221	3,922	8.9%
44	Juniata Park-Feltonville	33,697	$87,754	5,993	12.3%
45	Logan-Fern Rock	23,201	$87,432	5,699	14.7%
46	Grays Ferry	16,469	$90,238	5,831	15.5%
47	Frankford	38,061	$85,968	5,748	11.8%
48	Brewerytown	10,324	$119,611	4,770	9.4%
49	Morris Park	26,421	$114,903	5,018	7.9%
50	Elmwood	24,576	$96,341	5,601	9.6%
51	Haddington-Carroll Park	33,687	$75,415	5,979	12.2%
52	Harrowgate	18,485	$53,158	6,607	15.6%
53	Fairhill	27,912	$52,850	6,457	12.2%
54	Belmont	31,044	$96,149	5,830	7.5%
55	North Central	22,214	$92,841	5,933	9.3%
56	Hartranft	13,133	$66,569	6,087	9.5%