Best PlacesBelle Terre, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Belle Terre, 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.
Belle Terre ranks 301st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on good schools by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Belle Terre
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.
Belle Terre's strengths and weaknesses
Where Belle Terre ranks high
- School gradeA+, better than 99% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 99% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 99% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 99% of towns
- Household income$166,111 median, better than 98% of towns
Where Belle Terre ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,476 a month, better than only 4% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 6% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 6% of towns
- Short commute36.8 minutes each way, better than only 10% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 15% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Belle Terre
A household needs to earn about $320,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Belle Terre home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $166,111, 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 Belle Terre's effective rate of 1.71%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Belle Terre
Belle Terre runs older than the country, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Belle Terre.
Who works in Belle Terre, and how
Work in Belle Terre centers on health care & social and professional & technical. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 81%
- Work from home 15%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Belle Terre
The coast is about 1 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Belle Terre, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Belle Terre, month by month
Belle Terre sees roughly 69 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 43, with lows near 25. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 43° | 34° | 25° |
| April | 62° | 50° | 41° |
| July | 86° | 76° | 68° |
| October | 69° | 58° | 49° |
Flying in and out of Belle Terre
The nearest airport, Long Island MacArthur, is about 11 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is John F Kennedy International, about 43 miles away.
The best schools in and around Belle Terre
Schools across Belle Terre average an A+, better than 99% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Port Jefferson Elementary SchoolA+ · 75% proficient
Top middle schools
- Port Jefferson Middle SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
Top high schools
- Earl L Vandermeulen High SchoolA+ · 98% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Belle Terre school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Belle Terre 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 Belle Terre against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Belle Terre
Is Belle Terre a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Belle Terre ranks 301st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on good schools, health care access, and an educated workforce, and lowest on childcare costs 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 Belle Terre expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,090,400. The overall cost of living runs about 24% above the national average. Set against a $166,111 median income, cost of living beats 97% of towns.
Is Belle Terre safe?
Yes, Belle Terre is safer than 94% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $162 per resident a year.
Compare Belle Terre with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Belle Terre. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Belle Terre 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.
Belle Terre detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Belle Terre: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Belle Terre: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Belle Terre: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Belle Terre: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Belle Terre 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.