Best PlacesCortlandt, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Cortlandt, 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.
Cortlandt ranks 15,832nd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on fast internet by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Cortlandt
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.
Cortlandt's strengths and weaknesses
Where Cortlandt ranks high
- Internet speedBetter than 99% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 99% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 98% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 97% of towns
- School gradeA, better than 95% of towns
Where Cortlandt ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 2% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 3% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,476 a month, better than only 4% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 6% of towns
- Short commute36.8 minutes each way, better than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Cortlandt
A household needs to earn about $144,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Cortlandt home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $102,216, 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 Cortlandt's effective rate of 2.02%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Cortlandt
Cortlandt 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 Cortlandt.
Who works in Cortlandt, and how
Work in Cortlandt centers on education and finance & insurance. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 87%
- Work from home 7%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Cortlandt
The coast is about 38 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Cortlandt, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Cortlandt, month by month
Cortlandt sees roughly 75 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 Cortlandt
The nearest airport, New York Stewart International, is about 15 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Laguardia, about 38 miles away.
The best schools in and around Cortlandt
Schools across Cortlandt average an A, better than 95% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Van Cortlandtville SchoolB+ · 55% proficient
Top middle schools
- Lakeland-copper Beech Middle SchoolA · 59% proficient
Top high schools
- Walter Panas High SchoolA+ · 98% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Cortlandt school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Cortlandt 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 Cortlandt against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Cortlandt
Is Cortlandt a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Cortlandt ranks 15,832nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on fast internet, big-city access, and civic engagement, and lowest on noise and property taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Cortlandt expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $472,700. The overall cost of living runs about 18% above the national average. Set against a $102,216 median income, cost of living beats 63% of towns.
Is Cortlandt safe?
Cortlandt is safer than 49% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $298 per resident a year.
Compare Cortlandt with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Cortlandt. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Cortlandt 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.
Cortlandt detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Cortlandt: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Cortlandt: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Cortlandt: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Cortlandt: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Cortlandt 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.