Best PlacesCornwall, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Cornwall, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Cornwall ranks 2,947th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on good schools by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Cornwall
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.
Cornwall's strengths and weaknesses
Where Cornwall ranks high
- School gradeA+, better than 98% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 98% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 98% of towns
- TransitBetter than 95% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 95% of towns
Where Cornwall ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 1% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 5% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 8% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,308 a month, better than only 10% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 15% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Cornwall
A household needs to earn about $129,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Cornwall home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $103,811, 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 Cornwall's effective rate of 2.28%, 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 Cornwall
Cornwall's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Cornwall.
Who works in Cornwall, and how
Work in Cornwall centers on education and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 77%
- Work from home 18%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Cornwall
Cornwall has more restaurants and bars per resident than 77% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Cornwall and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Cornwall, month by month
Cornwall sees roughly 74 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 Cornwall
The nearest airport, New York Stewart International, is about 6 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Laguardia, about 46 miles away.
The best schools in and around Cornwall
Schools across Cornwall average an A+, better than 98% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Willow Avenue Elementary SchoolA+ · 85% proficient
- Cornwall Elementary SchoolA+ · 84% proficient
- Cornwall-on-hudson Elementary SchoolA+ · 78% proficient
Top middle schools
- Cornwall Middle SchoolA · 64% proficient
- Highland Falls Intermediate SchoolB− · 40% proficient
Top high schools
- Haldane High SchoolA+ · 98% proficient
- Cornwall Central High SchoolA+ · 95% proficient
- James I O'neill High SchoolA+ · 85% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Cornwall school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Cornwall 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 Cornwall against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Cornwall
Is Cornwall a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Cornwall ranks 2,947th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on good schools, big-city access, and population health, and lowest on property taxes and an overheated housing market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Cornwall expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $411,458. The overall cost of living runs about 18% above the national average. Set against a $103,811 median income, cost of living beats 61% of towns.
Is Cornwall safe?
Yes, Cornwall is safer than 86% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $208 per resident a year.
Compare Cornwall with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Cornwall. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Cornwall 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.
Cornwall detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Cornwall: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Cornwall: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Cornwall: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Cornwall: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Cornwall 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.