Best Places11953, NY Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood inside ZIP code 11953, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

11953 ranks 10,232nd of 33,110 U.S. zip codes on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on big-city access by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.

#10,232
of 33,110 zip codes
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 33,110 zip codes
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in 11953

Map of the best neighborhoods in the 11953 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.

11953's strengths and weaknesses

Top 10%Big-city access
Top 10%Fast internet
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare 11953 with other zip codes.

Where 11953 ranks high

  • Big-city accessBetter than 94% of zip codes
  • Internet speedBetter than 93% of zip codes
  • BikingBetter than 85% of zip codes
  • Crime safetyBetter than 85% of zip codes
  • TransitBetter than 84% of zip codes

Where 11953 ranks low

  • Housing crash safetyBetter than only 3% of zip codes
  • Low property taxBetter than only 4% of zip codes
  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 6% of zip codes
  • Cheap childcare$1,476 a month, better than only 7% of zip codes
  • State infrastructureBetter than only 18% of zip codes

What it costs to buy a home in 11953

A household needs to earn about $113,000 a year to comfortably buy the median 11953 home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $89,682, so buying stretches a typical household.

Income to buy the median home
$113,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$2,648
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $373,570 home
Median rent
$2,167
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$1,905
Property tax$619
Homeowners insurance$125

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 11953's effective rate of 1.99%, 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 7 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 11953

11953 runs older than the country.

Median age
47
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
24%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.5
near the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1820%
18 to 3419%
35 to 4919%
50 to 6419%
65 and older24%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for 11953.


Who works in 11953, and how

Work in 11953 centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.

Work from home
8%
below the national average
Unemployment
4.3%
about the national average
Job growth
+0.0%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social19%
Retail trade12%
Education10%
Public administration9%
Transportation & warehousing8%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 87%
  • Work from home 8%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 5%

Life in 11953

The coast is about 11 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across 11953, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
40
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 31.8 per 10,000 residents, more than 47% of zip codes
To the coast
11 min
drive to the nearest ocean beaches

What the weather is like in 11953, month by month

11953 sees roughly 72 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 44, with lows near 25. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January44°34°25°
April61°50°40°
July86°76°67°
October69°58°48°

Flying in and out of 11953

The nearest airport, Long Island MacArthur, is about 10 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is John F Kennedy International, about 46 miles away.

Nearest airport
ISP
Long Island MacArthur, about 10 miles
Airport size
Small hub
115th-busiest in the US, 22 nonstop destinations
Average drive
14 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around 11953

Schools across 11953 average a B+, better than 84% of zip codes.

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 11953 school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


11953 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 11953 against the other 33,109 zip codes.


Common questions about living in 11953

Is 11953 a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, 11953 ranks 10,232nd of 33,110 zip codes. It scores highest on big-city access, fast internet, and biking, and lowest on an overheated housing market and property taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is 11953 expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $373,570. The overall cost of living runs about 13% above the national average. Set against a $89,682 median income, cost of living beats 44% of zip codes.

Is 11953 safe?

Yes, 11953 is safer than 85% of zip codes. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $213 per resident a year.


Compare 11953 with other zip codes


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to 11953. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in 11953 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.

11953 detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for 11953: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in 11953: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of 11953: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in 11953: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

11953 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.