Best PlacesBrookhaven, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Brookhaven, 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.
Brookhaven ranks 9,887th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on fast internet by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Brookhaven
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.
Brookhaven's strengths and weaknesses
Where Brookhaven ranks high
- Internet speedBetter than 98% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 97% of towns
- TransitBetter than 97% of towns
- BikingBetter than 95% of towns
- Household income$113,431 median, better than 91% of towns
Where Brookhaven ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,476 a month, better than only 4% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 5% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 6% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 6% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 15% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Brookhaven
A household needs to earn about $198,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Brookhaven home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $113,431, 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 Brookhaven's effective rate of 1.71%, 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 Brookhaven
Brookhaven runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Brookhaven.
Who works in Brookhaven, and how
Work in Brookhaven centers on education and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Brookhaven
The coast is about 12 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Brookhaven, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Brookhaven, month by month
Brookhaven 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.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 44° | 34° | 25° |
| April | 61° | 50° | 40° |
| July | 86° | 76° | 67° |
| October | 69° | 58° | 48° |
Flying in and out of Brookhaven
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.
The best schools in and around Brookhaven
Schools across Brookhaven average a B+, better than 84% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Frank P Long Intermediate SchoolB− · 43% proficient
- Kreamer Street Elementary SchoolD+ · 25% proficient
Top high schools
- Bellport Senior High SchoolA+ · 85% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Brookhaven school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Brookhaven 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 Brookhaven against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Brookhaven
Is Brookhaven a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Brookhaven ranks 9,887th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on fast internet, big-city access, and transit, 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 Brookhaven expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $675,357. The overall cost of living runs about 28% above the national average. Set against a $113,431 median income, cost of living beats 62% of towns.
Is Brookhaven safe?
Yes, Brookhaven is safer than 65% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $273 per resident a year.
Compare Brookhaven with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Brookhaven. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Brookhaven 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.
Brookhaven detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Brookhaven: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Brookhaven: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Brookhaven: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Brookhaven: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Brookhaven 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.