Ithaca, New York

Unemployment of 4.7% is lower than 36% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 1.6% over the past year, to 13,963 employed residents.

68% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 96% of measured US cities.

Median household income of $48,784 is below 79% of measured US cities.

Median rent of $1,447 takes 36% of median household income, above the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 7.0 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

4 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 79°F and January a low of 13°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 41.7 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 35, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today. Air quality is measured rather than modelled, by EPA monitors, and published by county only where a monitor sits — roughly half the counties AreaProfile publishes have one, and the rest show nothing rather than an estimate. Air masses are regional, so a county reading describes the air over a place reasonably well, but it is still the county reading.

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime

Offences reported to police are published by department rather than by town, and only where a department reported every month of the year. No municipal department reports for this place — many smaller communities are policed by the county — so there is no figure to show. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.

Taxes and full cost of living

No public source publishes either with national coverage and a method open enough to check. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings. Nothing here is individualised tax advice.

Anything about a specific address

Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house. School attendance zones, insurance pricing and the character of a neighbourhood all vary within the places measured here.

Put Ithaca side by side with a similar place.

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.