Best PlacesKings County, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in Kings County, 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.
Kings County ranks 409th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 9 minutes away. Its strengths are walkability and transit. The cost shows up in taxes, car insurance costs, and noise.
The best neighborhoods in Kings County
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.
Kings County's strengths and weaknesses
Kings County ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Walkability is the standout, in the top 1% of counties. Transit and big-city access follow.
The one real hole is taxes, near the bottom of the country. Car insurance costs and noise also cost it ground. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Kings County ranks high
- WalkabilityBetter than 99% of counties
- TransitBetter than 99% of counties
- Big-city accessBetter than 99% of counties
- Cell coverageBetter than 99% of counties
- BikingBetter than 99% of counties
Where Kings County ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 1% of counties
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 1% of counties
- QuietBetter than only 1% of counties
- Short commute41.7 minutes each way, better than only 1% of counties
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 2% of counties
What it costs to buy a home in Kings County
A household needs to earn about $266,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Kings County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $90,170, 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 Kings County's effective rate of 0.57%, 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 Kings County
Kings County runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Kings County.
Who works in Kings County, and how
Work in Kings County centers on health care & social and professional & technical. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 23%
- Work from home 18%
- Transit, walk, or bike 59%
Life in Kings County
Kings County has less parkland per resident than most counties and more late-night spots per resident than 88% of counties. The coast is about 9 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Kings County and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Kings County growing, and who is moving in?
Kings County has grown about 1% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from the rest of the New York, NY metro.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Kings County go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Kings County, month by month
Kings County sees roughly 69 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 43, with lows near 28. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 43° | 35° | 28° |
| April | 65° | 53° | 44° |
| July | 88° | 78° | 70° |
| October | 69° | 60° | 52° |
Flying in and out of Kings County
John F Kennedy International sits about 9 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 31.0 million passengers in 2025, with 249 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Kings County
Schools across Kings County average a B+, better than 94% of counties.
Top elementary schools
- Brooklyn School Of InquiryA+ · 93% proficient
- Ps 107 John W KimballA+ · 90% proficient
- Ps 236 Mill BasinA+ · 90% proficient
Top middle schools
- Christa Mcauliffe School (the) /is 187A+ · 95% proficient
- Is 98 Bay AcademyA+ · 93% proficient
- Mark Twain Is 239 For The Gifted And TalentedA+ · 83% proficient
Top high schools
- Brooklyn Technical High SchoolA+ · 100% proficient
- Leon M Goldstein High School For The SciencesA+ · 98% proficient
- Brooklyn College AcademyA+ · 98% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Kings County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Kings County 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 Kings County against the other 3,143 counties.
Who Kings County suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 18% already work from home.
Retirees
Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.
Common questions about living in Kings County
Is Kings County a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Kings County ranks 409th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on walkability, transit, and big-city access, and lowest on taxes and car insurance costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Kings County expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,049,551. The overall cost of living runs about 54% above the national average. Set against a $90,170 median income, cost of living beats 5% of counties.
Is Kings County safe?
Yes, Kings County is safer than 72% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $301 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Kings County?
July highs average about 88 degrees, and January highs near 43 with lows near 28. That works out to about 69 pleasant days a year, more than 20% of counties.
Is Kings County good for families?
Schools beat 94% of counties, crime safety beats 72%, and childcare runs $1,344 a month.
Is Kings County good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 5% of counties, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 95% of counties. About 18% of workers already work from home.
Compare Kings County with other counties
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Kings County. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Kings County 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.
Kings County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Kings County: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Kings County: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Kings County: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Kings County: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Kings County 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.