Best PlacesCold Spring Harbor, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Cold Spring Harbor, 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.
Cold Spring Harbor ranks 364th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on high incomes by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Cold Spring Harbor
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.
Cold Spring Harbor's strengths and weaknesses
Where Cold Spring Harbor ranks high
- Household income$217,454 median, better than 99% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 99% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 99% of towns
- School gradeA+, better than 99% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 99% of towns
Where Cold Spring Harbor ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,476 a month, better than only 4% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 5% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 13% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 15% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Cold Spring Harbor
A household needs to earn about $426,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Cold Spring Harbor home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $217,454, 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 Cold Spring Harbor's effective rate of 1.38%, 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 Cold Spring Harbor
Cold Spring Harbor's age mix sits close to the national median, 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 Cold Spring Harbor.
Who works in Cold Spring Harbor, and how
Work in Cold Spring Harbor 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 55%
- Work from home 31%
- Transit, walk, or bike 14%
Life in Cold Spring Harbor
The coast is about 13 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Cold Spring Harbor, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Cold Spring Harbor, month by month
Cold Spring Harbor sees roughly 75 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 44, with lows near 26. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 44° | 35° | 26° |
| April | 62° | 51° | 42° |
| July | 86° | 77° | 69° |
| October | 69° | 59° | 50° |
Flying in and out of Cold Spring Harbor
The nearest airport, Long Island MacArthur, is about 19 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Laguardia, about 23 miles away.
The best schools in and around Cold Spring Harbor
Schools across Cold Spring Harbor average an A+, better than 99% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Jefferson SchoolB− · 40% proficient
Top middle schools
- Woodhull Intermediate SchoolB+ · 49% proficient
Top high schools
- Cold Spring Harbor High SchoolA+ · 93% proficient
- Huntington High SchoolA+ · 90% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Cold Spring Harbor school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Cold Spring Harbor 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 Cold Spring Harbor against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Cold Spring Harbor
Is Cold Spring Harbor a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Cold Spring Harbor ranks 364th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on high incomes, big-city 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 Cold Spring Harbor expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,509,497. The overall cost of living runs about 44% above the national average. Set against a $217,454 median income, cost of living beats 98% of towns.
Is Cold Spring Harbor safe?
Yes, Cold Spring Harbor is safer than 71% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $253 per resident a year.
Compare Cold Spring Harbor with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Cold Spring Harbor. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Cold Spring Harbor 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.
Cold Spring Harbor detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Cold Spring Harbor: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Cold Spring Harbor: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Cold Spring Harbor: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Cold Spring Harbor: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Cold Spring Harbor 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.