Best PlacesKingston, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Kingston metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by ajay_suresh, CC BY 2.0, via commons
Kingston ranks 134th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on an overheated housing market and cell coverage. It does better on tree cover, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Kingston metro
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.
The best areas in Kingston
The towns and districts of the Kingston metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Woodstock & West Hurley
Tree cover is thicker, more adults hold degrees, and it is quieter.
New Paltz & Wallkill
Fewer homes sit empty.
Hurley & Tillson
More residents vote, though streets are more car-dependent.
Highland, Marlboro & Milton
More households have young kids and local pay stretches further.
Downtown Kingston
Biking is better and commutes are shorter.
Ellenville, Pine Bush & Napanoch
Health care is harder to reach.
Kerhonkson & Accord
Incomes run higher, though crime runs higher.
Saugerties
Advertised internet is faster.
Scores across Kingston run from about the 16th to the 96th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Kingston's strengths and weaknesses
Kingston lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Tree cover is the standout, in the top 1% of metro areas. Good schools and big-city access follow.
The one real hole is an overheated housing market, near the bottom of the country. Cell coverage and property taxes also cost it ground. Cost swings more from one part of Kingston to another than it does between Kingston and its neighbors, which the map below shows.
Where Kingston ranks high
- Tree shadeBetter than 99% of metro areas
- School gradeA−, better than 96% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than 93% of metro areas
- Healthcare accessBetter than 92% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than 88% of metro areas
Where Kingston ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- Cell coverageBetter than only 4% of metro areas
- Low property taxBetter than only 6% of metro areas
- Short commute27.5 minutes each way, better than only 10% of metro areas
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 14% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Kingston
A household needs to earn about $106,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Kingston home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $91,580, 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 Kingston's effective rate of 1.74%, 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 Kingston
Kingston 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 Kingston.
Who works in Kingston, and how
Work in Kingston centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 74%
- Work from home 17%
- Transit, walk, or bike 8%
Life in Kingston
Kingston has more parkland per resident than 67% of metro areas. That concentrates in some parts of Kingston and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Kingston growing, and who is moving in?
Kingston has grown about 1% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from New York, NY.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Kingston go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Kingston, month by month
Kingston sees roughly 82 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 37, with lows near 21. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 37° | 28° | 21° |
| April | 61° | 48° | 38° |
| July | 85° | 73° | 62° |
| October | 65° | 53° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Kingston
The nearest airport, New York Stewart International, is about 30 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Bradley International, about 68 miles away.
The best schools in and around Kingston
Schools across Kingston average an A−, better than 96% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Robert R Graves SchoolA+ · 80% proficient
- Woodstock Elementary SchoolA+ · 75% proficient
- Ernest C Myer SchoolA · 70% proficient
Top middle schools
- Bulkeley Middle SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
- Jhs 259 William MckinleyA+ · 68% proficient
- Rondout Valley Intermediate SchoolB+ · 48% proficient
Top high schools
- Red Hook Senior High SchoolA+ · 98% proficient
- Kingston High SchoolA+ · 92% proficient
- Saugerties Senior High SchoolA+ · 90% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Kingston school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Kingston 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 Kingston against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Kingston suits
Common questions about living in Kingston
Is Kingston a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Kingston ranks 134th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on tree cover, good schools, and big-city access, and lowest on an overheated housing market and cell coverage. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Kingston expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $359,912. The overall cost of living runs about 6% above the national average. Set against a $91,580 median income, cost of living beats 46% of metro areas.
Is Kingston safe?
Yes, Kingston is safer than 74% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $288 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Kingston?
July highs average about 85 degrees, and January highs near 37 with lows near 21. That works out to about 82 pleasant days a year, more than 42% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Kingston?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Woodstock & West Hurley, New Paltz & Wallkill, and Hurley & Tillson. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Kingston good for families?
Schools beat 96% of metro areas, crime safety beats 74%, and childcare runs $1,308 a month.
Is Kingston good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 46% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 41% of metro areas. About 17% of workers already work from home.
Compare Kingston with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Kingston. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Kingston 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.
Kingston detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Kingston: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Kingston: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Kingston: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Kingston: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Kingston 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.