Best PlacesBrooklyn, MD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Brooklyn, 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.
Brooklyn ranks 48,241st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on transit by a wide margin, and the schools rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Brooklyn
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.
Brooklyn's strengths and weaknesses
Where Brooklyn ranks high
- TransitBetter than 99% of towns
- BikingBetter than 99% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 99% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 99% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 97% of towns
Where Brooklyn ranks low
- School gradeF, better than only 1% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 1% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 2% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 2% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 2% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Brooklyn
A household needs to earn about $33,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Brooklyn home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $39,776, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
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 Brooklyn's effective rate of 1.43%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 3 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Brooklyn
Brooklyn runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Brooklyn.
Who works in Brooklyn, and how
Work in Brooklyn centers on health care & social and admin & support services. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 69%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 23%
Life in Brooklyn
Brooklyn has more parkland per resident than 94% of towns. The coast is about 10 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Brooklyn and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Brooklyn, month by month
Brooklyn sees roughly 95 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 91 degrees. January highs sit near 45, with lows near 33. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 45° | 39° | 33° |
| April | 68° | 59° | 51° |
| July | 91° | 83° | 76° |
| October | 71° | 63° | 56° |
Flying in and out of Brooklyn
Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall sits about 5 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 12.3 million passengers in 2025, with 114 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Brooklyn
Schools across Brooklyn average an F, better than 1% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Elmer A. Henderson: A Johns Hopkins PartnershipF · 8% proficient
- Maree Garnett Farring Elementary/middleF · 6% proficient
- Curtis Bay ElementaryF · 3% proficient
Top middle schools
- Vanguard Collegiate MiddleF · 8% proficient
- The Historic Cherry Hill Elementary/middleF · 6% proficient
Top high schools
- Benjamin Franklin High School At Masonville CoveF · 7% proficient
- New Era AcademyF · 5% proficient
- The Reach! Partnership SchoolF · 4% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Brooklyn school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Brooklyn 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 Brooklyn against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Brooklyn
Is Brooklyn a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Brooklyn ranks 48,241st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on transit, biking, and walkability, and lowest on the schools and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Brooklyn expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $116,764. The overall cost of living runs about 12% below the national average. Set against a $39,776 median income, cost of living beats 3% of towns.
Is Brooklyn safe?
Brooklyn is safer than 2% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $851 per resident a year.
Compare Brooklyn with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Brooklyn. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Brooklyn 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.
Brooklyn detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Brooklyn: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Brooklyn: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Brooklyn: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Brooklyn: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Brooklyn 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.