Best PlacesCold Spring, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Cold Spring, 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 ranks 5,497th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on health care access by a wide margin, and long commutes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Cold Spring
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's strengths and weaknesses
Where Cold Spring ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 98% of towns
- School gradeA+, better than 98% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 98% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 98% of towns
- Household income$137,017 median, better than 96% of towns
Where Cold Spring ranks low
- Short commute42.3 minutes each way, better than only 3% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,473 a month, better than only 4% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 7% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 9% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 14% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Cold Spring
A household needs to earn about $180,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Cold Spring home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $137,017, 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's effective rate of 1.36%, 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
Cold Spring 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 Cold Spring.
Who works in Cold Spring, and how
Work in Cold Spring centers on education and professional & technical. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 56%
- Work from home 22%
- Transit, walk, or bike 21%
Life in Cold Spring
Cold Spring has more restaurants and bars per resident than 89% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Cold Spring and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Cold Spring, month by month
Cold Spring 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 Cold Spring
The nearest airport, New York Stewart International, is about 10 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Laguardia, about 46 miles away.
The best schools in and around Cold Spring
Schools across Cold Spring average an A+, better than 98% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Putnam Valley Elementary SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
- Brinckerhoff Elementary SchoolA+ · 76% proficient
- Haldane Elementary SchoolA+ · 75% proficient
Top middle schools
- Haldane Middle SchoolA+ · 68% proficient
- Rombout Middle SchoolA+ · 68% proficient
- Putnam Valley Middle SchoolB+ · 49% proficient
Top high schools
- Haldane High SchoolA+ · 98% proficient
- John Jay Senior High SchoolA+ · 96% proficient
- Carmel High SchoolA+ · 96% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Cold Spring school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Cold Spring 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 against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Cold Spring
Is Cold Spring a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Cold Spring ranks 5,497th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on health care access, good schools, and an educated workforce, and lowest on long commutes and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Cold Spring expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $638,159. The overall cost of living runs about 20% above the national average. Set against a $137,017 median income, cost of living beats 91% of towns.
Is Cold Spring safe?
Cold Spring is safer than 29% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $389 per resident a year.
Compare Cold Spring with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Cold Spring. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Cold Spring 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 detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Cold Spring: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Cold Spring: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Cold Spring: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Cold Spring: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Cold Spring 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.