Best PlacesFlanders, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Flanders, 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.
Flanders ranks 26,033rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on big-city access by a wide margin, and civic engagement ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Flanders
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.
Flanders' strengths and weaknesses
Where Flanders ranks high
- Big-city accessBetter than 95% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 93% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 92% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 87% of towns
Where Flanders ranks low
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 1% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 3% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,476 a month, better than only 4% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 7% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 7% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Flanders
A household needs to earn about $126,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Flanders home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $99,709, 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 Flanders' effective rate of 1.09%, 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 Flanders
Flanders runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Flanders.
Who works in Flanders, and how
Work in Flanders centers on retail trade and construction. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 95%
- Work from home 1%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Flanders
The coast is about 9 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Flanders, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Flanders, month by month
Flanders sees roughly 79 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 43, with lows near 22. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 43° | 33° | 22° |
| April | 59° | 48° | 37° |
| July | 84° | 74° | 64° |
| October | 68° | 56° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Flanders
The nearest airport, Long Island MacArthur, is about 27 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is John F Kennedy International, about 64 miles away.
The best schools in and around Flanders
Schools across Flanders average a B, better than 73% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- East Quogue SchoolA+ · 75% proficient
- Hampton Bays Elementary SchoolA− · 60% proficient
- Phillips Avenue SchoolC · 35% proficient
Top middle schools
- Hampton Bays Middle SchoolB · 45% proficient
- Riverhead Middle SchoolC · 34% proficient
Top high schools
- Hampton Bays High SchoolA+ · 98% proficient
- Riverhead Senior High SchoolA+ · 81% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Flanders school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Flanders 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 Flanders against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Flanders
Is Flanders a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Flanders ranks 26,033rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on big-city access, tree cover, and heat safety, and lowest on civic engagement 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 Flanders expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $463,370. The overall cost of living runs about 23% above the national average. Set against a $99,709 median income, cost of living beats 40% of towns.
Is Flanders safe?
Yes, Flanders is safer than 78% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $220 per resident a year.
Compare Flanders with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Flanders. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Flanders 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.
Flanders detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Flanders: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Flanders: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Flanders: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Flanders: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Flanders 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.