Best PlacesLong Beach, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Long Beach, 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.
Long Beach ranks 250th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cell coverage by a wide margin, and long commutes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Long Beach
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.
Long Beach's strengths and weaknesses
Where Long Beach ranks high
- Cell coverageBetter than 99% of cities
- WalkabilityBetter than 98% of cities
- School gradeA, better than 98% of cities
- Internet speedBetter than 96% of cities
- Big-city accessBetter than 96% of cities
Where Long Beach ranks low
- Short commute41.5 minutes each way, better than only 1% of cities
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 8% of cities
- Tree shadeBetter than only 8% of cities
- State infrastructureBetter than only 14% of cities
- Low property taxBetter than only 17% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Long Beach
A household needs to earn about $211,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Long Beach home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $151,090, 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 Long Beach's effective rate of 1.60%, 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 Long Beach
Long Beach 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 Long Beach.
Who works in Long Beach, and how
Work in Long Beach centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 60%
- Work from home 19%
- Transit, walk, or bike 22%
Life in Long Beach
Long Beach has more restaurants and bars per resident than 80% of cities. The coast is about 0 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Long Beach and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Long Beach, month by month
Long Beach sees roughly 68 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 44, with lows near 27. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 44° | 35° | 27° |
| April | 63° | 51° | 43° |
| July | 87° | 77° | 70° |
| October | 70° | 60° | 51° |
Flying in and out of Long Beach
John F Kennedy International sits about 7 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 Long Beach
Schools across Long Beach average an A, better than 98% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Lido Elementary SchoolA+ · 85% proficient
- West Elementary SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
- Lindell Boulevard SchoolA+ · 80% proficient
Top middle schools
- Long Beach Middle SchoolA− · 57% proficient
- Island Park Lincoln Orens Middle SchoolB+ · 50% proficient
- Lawrence Middle School At Broadway CampusF · 11% proficient
Top high schools
- Long Beach High SchoolA+ · 92% proficient
- Frederick Douglass Academy Vi High SchoolA− · 60% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Long Beach school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Long Beach 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 Long Beach against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Long Beach suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 19% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Long Beach
Is Long Beach a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Long Beach ranks 250th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on cell coverage, walkability, and good schools, and lowest on long commutes 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 Long Beach expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $727,397. The overall cost of living runs about 43% above the national average. Set against a $151,090 median income, cost of living beats 66% of cities.
Is Long Beach safe?
Yes, Long Beach is safer than 63% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $282 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Long Beach?
July highs average about 87 degrees, and January highs near 44 with lows near 27. That works out to about 68 pleasant days a year, more than 21% of cities.
Is Long Beach good for families?
Schools beat 98% of cities, crime safety beats 63%, and childcare runs $1,476 a month.
Compare Long Beach with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Long Beach. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Long Beach 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.
Long Beach detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Long Beach: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Long Beach: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Long Beach: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Long Beach: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Long Beach 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.