Best PlacesBear Mountain, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Bear Mountain, 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.
Bear Mountain ranks 6,706th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on big-city access by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Bear Mountain
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.
Bear Mountain's strengths and weaknesses
Where Bear Mountain ranks high
- Big-city accessBetter than 99% of towns
- Household income$151,067 median, better than 97% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 97% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 94% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 94% of towns
Where Bear Mountain ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 1% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,466 a month, better than only 5% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 6% of towns
- Short commute38.1 minutes each way, better than only 8% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 8% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Bear Mountain
A household needs to earn about $166,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Bear Mountain home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $151,067; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Bear Mountain's effective rate of 2.22%, 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 Bear Mountain
Bear Mountain 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 Bear Mountain.
Who works in Bear Mountain, and how
Work in Bear Mountain centers on retail trade and education. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 86%
- Work from home 5%
- Transit, walk, or bike 9%
Life in Bear Mountain
The coast is about 42 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Bear Mountain, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Bear Mountain, month by month
Bear Mountain sees roughly 73 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 37, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 37° | 30° | 23° |
| April | 60° | 50° | 41° |
| July | 85° | 75° | 66° |
| October | 65° | 55° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Bear Mountain
The nearest airport, New York Stewart International, is about 16 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Laguardia, about 36 miles away.
The best schools in and around Bear Mountain
Schools across Bear Mountain average a B, better than 80% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Central Valley Elementary SchoolA− · 56% proficient
- Stony Point Elementary SchoolB− · 40% proficient
Top middle schools
- Peekskill Middle SchoolA+ · 75% proficient
- James A Farley Elementary SchoolA− · 56% proficient
- Monroe-woodbury Middle SchoolB− · 42% proficient
Top high schools
- Monroe-woodbury High SchoolA+ · 97% proficient
- North Rockland High SchoolA+ · 86% proficient
- James I O'neill High SchoolA+ · 85% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Bear Mountain school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Bear Mountain 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 Bear Mountain against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Bear Mountain
Is Bear Mountain a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Bear Mountain ranks 6,706th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on big-city access, high incomes, and population health, and lowest on property taxes and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Bear Mountain expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $532,229. The overall cost of living runs about 20% above the national average. Set against a $151,067 median income, cost of living beats 94% of towns.
Is Bear Mountain safe?
Yes, Bear Mountain is safer than 75% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $230 per resident a year.
Compare Bear Mountain with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Bear Mountain. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Bear Mountain 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.
Bear Mountain detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Bear Mountain: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Bear Mountain: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Bear Mountain: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Bear Mountain: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Bear Mountain 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.