Best PlacesKatonah, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Katonah, 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.
Katonah ranks 1,375th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on an educated workforce by a wide margin, and long commutes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Katonah
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.
Katonah's strengths and weaknesses
Where Katonah ranks high
- Educational attainmentBetter than 99% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 99% of towns
- Household income$224,738 median, better than 99% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 99% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 99% of towns
Where Katonah ranks low
- Short commute42.7 minutes each way, better than only 3% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,476 a month, better than only 4% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 5% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 6% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 14% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Katonah
A household needs to earn about $277,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Katonah home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $224,738, 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 Katonah's effective rate of 1.79%, 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 Katonah
Katonah runs older than the country, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Katonah.
Who works in Katonah, and how
Work in Katonah centers on professional & technical and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 54%
- Work from home 30%
- Transit, walk, or bike 16%
Life in Katonah
The coast is about 25 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Katonah, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Katonah, month by month
Katonah sees roughly 69 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 41, with lows near 21. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 41° | 31° | 21° |
| April | 63° | 50° | 38° |
| July | 86° | 75° | 63° |
| October | 68° | 55° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Katonah
The nearest airport, Westchester County, is about 14 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Laguardia, about 35 miles away.
The best schools in and around Katonah
Schools across Katonah average an A+, better than 98% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Increase Miller Elementary SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
- Somers Intermediate SchoolA+ · 84% proficient
- Katonah Elementary SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
Top middle schools
- Seven Bridges Middle SchoolA+ · 87% proficient
- John Jay Middle SchoolA · 67% proficient
- Somers Middle SchoolA · 62% proficient
Top high schools
- Horace Greeley High SchoolA+ · 100% proficient
- Yorktown High SchoolA+ · 99% proficient
- John Jay High SchoolA+ · 98% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Katonah school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Katonah 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 Katonah against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Katonah
Is Katonah a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Katonah ranks 1,375th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on an educated workforce, what local pay buys, and high incomes, 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 Katonah expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $932,545. The overall cost of living runs about 31% above the national average. Set against a $224,738 median income, cost of living beats 100% of towns.
Is Katonah safe?
Katonah is safer than 39% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $362 per resident a year.
Compare Katonah with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Katonah. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Katonah 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.
Katonah detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Katonah: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Katonah: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Katonah: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Katonah: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Katonah 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.