Living in Savannah, GA

Crime rates in Savannah are a touch above the national midpoint. The violent crime index comes in at 105 and property crime at 132, where 100 represents the U.S. average. That's not alarming, but it's enough that you should spend real time researching specific neighborhoods rather than assuming everywhere is equally fine. Talk to people who live there, walk the streets at different hours, and check the local police department's crime map. FBI UCR data.

Most households manage fine. Median rent in Savannah is $1,302/month, and the typical household pulls in $56,782/year — a 27.5% rent-to-income ratio. That's under the 30% threshold where housing costs start to pinch, though not by a huge margin. If you're a single earner or have significant debt payments, run your own numbers carefully. For dual-income households, the math works out comfortably. Census ACS 2023.

The average worker in Savannah spends about 18 minutes getting to the office. Driving solo is the default (70.4%), with 10.1% working remotely and 2.6% on public transit. It's a fairly typical commute — not a selling point, not a dealbreaker.

Mixed. The city-wide graduation rate is 78.0% and classrooms average 16 students per teacher. Some schools here are legitimately excellent — strong test scores, engaged communities, good resources. Others struggle. The gap between the best and worst is wider than you might expect. Do your homework on individual schools rather than relying on the city-wide number.

Higher than average, yes. The total effective tax rate lands around 13.6% when you add up income, property, and sales taxes. Sales tax is 7.0%. High-tax areas often come with better public schools, infrastructure, and services — but that's not guaranteed, and it's cold comfort on payday. If you're moving from a low-tax state like Texas or Florida, brace for a noticeable dip in take-home pay.

Everything on this page is built from public government sources: rent and income figures from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS 5-Year Estimates, 2023); commute and transportation data from Census ACS tables B08303 and B08006; crime rates from the FBI Uniform Crime Report; school data from the National Center for Education Statistics. We refresh each dataset monthly through an automated pipeline and cross-check for anomalies. No surveys, no user-submitted guesses — just official federal data presented in a way that's actually useful for people researching a move.