Best PlacesManhattan, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Manhattan, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Distance to the water drives a lot of the difference between one part and the next. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Manhattan ranks 39th of 445 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 16 minutes away. Its strengths are walkability and transit. The cost shows up in noise, taxes, and car insurance costs.
The best neighborhoods in Manhattan
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 Manhattan
The parts of Manhattan, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the city.
Upper West Side, Midtown & Murray Hill
Incomes run higher, more adults hold degrees, and local pay stretches further.
Greenwich Village, Lower East Side & Financial District
Transit reaches more jobs, though more homes sit empty.
Upper East Side & Carnegie Hill
Health care is easier to reach, though homes cost more.
Morningside Heights
Crime runs lower, though fewer households have young kids.
Chelsea & Clinton
Health outcomes score higher and commutes are shorter.
East Village, Gramercy & Kips Bay
Biking is better and schools score higher.
Washington Heights, Harlem & Hamilton Heights
Fewer residents vote.
Manhattan shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 2% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Manhattan's strengths and weaknesses
Manhattan 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 cities. Transit and big-city access follow.
The one real hole is noise, near the bottom of the country. Taxes and car insurance costs also cost it ground. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Manhattan ranks high
- WalkabilityBetter than 99% of cities
- TransitBetter than 99% of cities
- Big-city accessBetter than 99% of cities
- School gradeA−, better than 99% of cities
- BikingBetter than 98% of cities
Where Manhattan ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 1% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 1% of cities
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 5% of cities
- Low vacancyBetter than only 6% of cities
- Internet speedBetter than only 7% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Manhattan
A household needs to earn about $326,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Manhattan home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $124,949, 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 Manhattan's effective rate of 0.66%, 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 Manhattan
Manhattan's age mix sits close to the national median, 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 Manhattan.
Who works in Manhattan, and how
Work in Manhattan centers on professional & technical and health care & social. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 8%
- Work from home 25%
- Transit, walk, or bike 67%
Life in Manhattan
Manhattan has more restaurants and bars per resident than 95% of cities and more parkland per resident than 77% of cities. The coast is about 16 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Manhattan and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Manhattan, month by month
Manhattan sees roughly 75 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 Manhattan
Laguardia sits about 5 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 16.3 million passengers in 2025, with 118 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Manhattan
Schools across Manhattan average an A−, better than 99% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Success Academy Charter School-harlem 3A+ · 98% proficient
- Ps 290 Manhattan New SchoolA+ · 96% proficient
- Ps 77 Lower Lab SchoolA+ · 96% proficient
Top middle schools
- Nyc Lab Ms For Collaborative StudiesA+ · 93% proficient
- Ms 255 Salk School Of ScienceA+ · 90% proficient
- Jhs 54 Booker T WashingtonA+ · 88% proficient
Top high schools
- Stuyvesant High SchoolA+ · 100% proficient
- Fiorello H Laguardia High SchoolA+ · 100% proficient
- Manhattan Center For Science & MathematicsA+ · 98% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Manhattan school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Manhattan 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 Manhattan against the other 444 cities.
Who Manhattan suits
Common questions about living in Manhattan
Is Manhattan a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Manhattan ranks 39th of 445 cities. It scores highest on walkability, transit, and big-city access, and lowest on noise and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Manhattan expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,271,400. The overall cost of living runs about 100% above the national average. Set against a $124,949 median income, cost of living beats 11% of cities.
Is Manhattan safe?
Manhattan is safer than 54% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $398 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Manhattan?
July highs average about 88 degrees, and January highs near 43 with lows near 28. That works out to about 75 pleasant days a year, more than 28% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Manhattan?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Upper West Side, Midtown & Murray Hill, Greenwich Village, Lower East Side & Financial District, and Upper East Side & Carnegie Hill. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Manhattan good for families?
Schools beat 99% of cities, crime safety beats 54%, and childcare runs $1,344 a month.
Is Manhattan good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 11% of cities, though advertised internet speeds beat only 7% of cities. About 25% of workers already work from home.
Compare Manhattan with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Manhattan. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Manhattan 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.
Manhattan detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Manhattan: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Manhattan: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Manhattan: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Manhattan: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Manhattan 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.