Best Places11959, NY Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood inside ZIP code 11959, 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

11959 ranks 14,039th of 33,110 U.S. zip codes on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on civic engagement by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.

#14,039
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 11959

Map of the best neighborhoods in the 11959 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.

11959's strengths and weaknesses

Top 1%Civic engagement
Top 3%Good schools
Top 5%Fast internet
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare 11959 with other zip codes.

Where 11959 ranks high

  • Voter turnoutBetter than 99% of zip codes
  • School gradeA+, better than 99% of zip codes
  • Internet speedBetter than 96% of zip codes
  • Local economyBetter than 94% of zip codes
  • Big-city accessBetter than 90% of zip codes

Where 11959 ranks low

  • Housing crash safetyBetter than only 4% of zip codes
  • Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 6% of zip codes
  • Cheap childcare$1,476 a month, better than only 7% of zip codes
  • Low vacancyBetter than only 8% of zip codes
  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 10% of zip codes

What it costs to buy a home in 11959

A household needs to earn about $359,000 a year to comfortably buy the median 11959 home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $94,489, so buying stretches a typical household.

Income to buy the median home
$359,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$8,380
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $1,445,729 home
Median rent
$3,357
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$7,371
Property tax$526
Homeowners insurance$482

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 11959's effective rate of 0.44%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.

Renting versus buying

At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. 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 11959

11959 runs older than the country.

Median age
55
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
38%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.5
near the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1824%
18 to 347%
35 to 4912%
50 to 6418%
65 and older38%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for 11959.


Who works in 11959, and how

Work in 11959 centers on professional & technical and information. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.

Work from home
26%
above the national average
Unemployment
0.0%
below the national average
Job growth
+0.5%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Professional & technical25%
Information14%
Health care & social13%
Retail trade11%
Construction10%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 68%
  • Work from home 26%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 5%

Life in 11959

The coast is about 2 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across 11959, which the map shows.

To the coast
2 min
drive to the nearest ocean beaches

What the weather is like in 11959, month by month

11959 sees roughly 79 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 43, with lows near 22. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January43°33°22°
April59°48°37°
July84°74°64°
October68°56°44°

Flying in and out of 11959

The nearest airport, Long Island MacArthur, is about 26 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is John F Kennedy International, about 63 miles away.

Nearest airport
ISP
Long Island MacArthur, about 26 miles
Airport size
Small hub
115th-busiest in the US, 22 nonstop destinations
Average drive
37 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around 11959

Schools across 11959 average an A+, better than 99% 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 11959 school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


11959 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 11959 against the other 33,109 zip codes.


Common questions about living in 11959

Is 11959 a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, 11959 ranks 14,039th of 33,110 zip codes. It scores highest on civic engagement, good schools, and fast internet, and lowest on an overheated housing market and the cost of living against local pay. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is 11959 expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $1,445,729. The overall cost of living runs about 93% above the national average. Set against a $94,489 median income, cost of living beats 6% of zip codes.

Is 11959 safe?

11959 is safer than 45% of zip codes. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $331 per resident a year.


Compare 11959 with other zip codes


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to 11959. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in 11959 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.

11959 detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for 11959: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in 11959: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of 11959: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in 11959: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

11959 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.