Best PlacesAtlantic Beach, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Atlantic Beach, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Atlantic Beach ranks 9,680th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on big-city access by a wide margin, and long commutes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Atlantic Beach
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.
Atlantic Beach's strengths and weaknesses
Where Atlantic Beach ranks high
- Big-city accessBetter than 99% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 99% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 99% of towns
- Household income$178,727 median, better than 99% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 99% of towns
Where Atlantic Beach ranks low
- Short commute48.1 minutes each way, better than only 1% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 2% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,476 a month, better than only 4% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 13% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Atlantic Beach
A household needs to earn about $284,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Atlantic Beach home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $178,727, so buying stretches a typical household.
Where the monthly payment goes
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 Atlantic Beach's effective rate of 1.41%, 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.
Who lives in Atlantic Beach
Atlantic Beach runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Atlantic Beach.
Who works in Atlantic Beach, and how
Work in Atlantic Beach centers on professional & technical and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 61%
- Work from home 23%
- Transit, walk, or bike 16%
Life in Atlantic Beach
The coast is about 0 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Atlantic Beach, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Atlantic Beach, month by month
Atlantic Beach sees roughly 68 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 44, with lows near 27. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 44° | 35° | 27° |
| April | 63° | 51° | 43° |
| July | 87° | 77° | 70° |
| October | 70° | 60° | 51° |
Flying in and out of Atlantic Beach
John F Kennedy International sits about 4 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 31.0 million passengers in 2025, with 249 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Atlantic Beach
Schools across Atlantic Beach average a B−, better than 67% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Brooklyn School Of InquiryA+ · 93% proficient
- West Elementary SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
- Ps 197 Ocean School (the)A− · 60% proficient
Top middle schools
- Long Beach Middle SchoolA− · 57% proficient
- Village AcademyF · 12% proficient
- Lawrence Middle School At Broadway CampusF · 11% proficient
Top high schools
- Long Beach High SchoolA+ · 92% proficient
- Frederick Douglass Academy Vi High SchoolA− · 60% proficient
- Professional Pathways High SchoolA− · 60% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Atlantic Beach school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Atlantic Beach 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 Atlantic Beach against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Atlantic Beach
Is Atlantic Beach a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Atlantic Beach ranks 9,680th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on big-city access, health care access, and an educated workforce, and lowest on long commutes and car insurance costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Atlantic Beach expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,005,148. The overall cost of living runs about 56% above the national average. Set against a $178,727 median income, cost of living beats 93% of towns.
Is Atlantic Beach safe?
Atlantic Beach is safer than 14% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $493 per resident a year.
Compare Atlantic Beach with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Atlantic Beach. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Atlantic Beach 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.
Atlantic Beach detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Atlantic Beach: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Atlantic Beach: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Atlantic Beach: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Atlantic Beach: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Atlantic Beach detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- 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.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.