Best PlacesEast Hampton, CT Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around East Hampton, 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.
East Hampton ranks 2,289th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on civic engagement by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in East Hampton
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.
East Hampton's strengths and weaknesses
Where East Hampton ranks high
- Voter turnoutBetter than 99% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 94% of towns
- Household income$124,208 median, better than 94% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 94% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 94% of towns
Where East Hampton ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,579 a month, better than only 2% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 4% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 6% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 12% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 18% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in East Hampton
A household needs to earn about $103,000 a year to comfortably buy the median East Hampton home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $124,208, 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 East Hampton's effective rate of 1.91%, 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 East Hampton
East Hampton runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for East Hampton.
Who works in East Hampton, and how
Work in East Hampton centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 85%
- Work from home 13%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in East Hampton
The coast is about 37 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across East Hampton, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in East Hampton, month by month
East Hampton sees roughly 71 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 42, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 42° | 32° | 23° |
| April | 63° | 51° | 39° |
| July | 88° | 77° | 66° |
| October | 69° | 56° | 45° |
Flying in and out of East Hampton
Bradley International sits about 27 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 3.3 million passengers in 2025, with 92 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around East Hampton
Schools across East Hampton average a B+, better than 77% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Memorial SchoolA− · 60% proficient
- Center SchoolA− · 59% proficient
- East Haddam Elementary SchoolB+ · 55% proficient
Top middle schools
- William J. Johnston Middle SchoolA · 60% proficient
- Nathan Hale-ray Middle SchoolA− · 56% proficient
- Brownstone Intermediate SchoolA− · 53% proficient
Top high schools
- Haddam-killingworth High SchoolA− · 65% proficient
- Portland High SchoolA− · 63% proficient
- Bacon AcademyB+ · 53% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every East Hampton school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
East Hampton 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 East Hampton against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in East Hampton
Is East Hampton a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, East Hampton ranks 2,289th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on civic engagement, what local pay buys, and high incomes, and lowest on childcare costs and property taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is East Hampton expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $343,661. The overall cost of living runs about 3% below the national average. Set against a $124,208 median income, cost of living beats 94% of towns.
Is East Hampton safe?
Yes, East Hampton is safer than 90% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $140 per resident a year.
Compare East Hampton with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to East Hampton. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in East Hampton 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.
East Hampton detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for East Hampton: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in East Hampton: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of East Hampton: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in East Hampton: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
East Hampton 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.