Best PlacesMount Vernon, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Mount Vernon, 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.
Mount Vernon ranks 1,460th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on transit by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Mount Vernon
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 Mount Vernon
The parts of Mount Vernon, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first.
South Side
North Side
Wakefield-Williamsbridge
Eastchester
Scores across Mount Vernon run from about the 10th to the 90th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Mount Vernon's strengths and weaknesses
Where Mount Vernon ranks high
- TransitBetter than 97% of cities
- Big-city accessBetter than 97% of cities
- WalkabilityBetter than 97% of cities
- Cell coverageBetter than 96% of cities
- Air qualityBetter than 80% of cities
Where Mount Vernon ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 1% of cities
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 3% of cities
- Local economyBetter than only 4% of cities
- Short commute35.0 minutes each way, better than only 6% of cities
- Low property taxBetter than only 10% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Mount Vernon
A household needs to earn about $145,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Mount Vernon home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $89,537, 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 Mount Vernon's effective rate of 1.86%, 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 Mount Vernon
Mount Vernon's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Mount Vernon.
Who works in Mount Vernon, and how
Work in Mount Vernon centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 56%
- Work from home 9%
- Transit, walk, or bike 34%
Life in Mount Vernon
Mount Vernon has more parkland per resident than 75% of cities. The coast is about 6 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Mount Vernon and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Mount Vernon, month by month
Mount Vernon sees roughly 70 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 44, with lows near 29. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 44° | 36° | 29° |
| April | 65° | 53° | 45° |
| July | 90° | 80° | 72° |
| October | 70° | 61° | 54° |
Flying in and out of Mount Vernon
Laguardia sits about 10 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 Mount Vernon
Schools across Mount Vernon average a C+, better than 51% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Rebecca Turner Elementary SchoolA · 70% proficient
- Lincoln SchoolA− · 60% proficient
- Hutchinson SchoolB+ · 55% proficient
Top middle schools
- Pelham Middle SchoolA+ · 80% proficient
- Benjamin Turner Middle SchoolF · 8% proficient
Top high schools
- Pelham Memorial High SchoolA+ · 97% proficient
- Mount Vernon Steam AcademyA+ · 85% proficient
- Denzel Washington School-artsA · 75% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Mount Vernon school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Mount Vernon 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 Mount Vernon against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Mount Vernon suits
Retirees
Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.
Common questions about living in Mount Vernon
Is Mount Vernon a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Mount Vernon ranks 1,460th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on transit, big-city access, and walkability, and lowest on noise 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 Mount Vernon expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $484,272. The overall cost of living runs about 9% above the national average. Set against a $89,537 median income, cost of living beats 33% of cities.
Is Mount Vernon safe?
Mount Vernon is safer than 26% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $402 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Mount Vernon?
July highs average about 90 degrees, and January highs near 44 with lows near 29. That works out to about 70 pleasant days a year, more than 26% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Mount Vernon?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are South Side, North Side, and Wakefield-Williamsbridge. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Compare Mount Vernon with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Mount Vernon. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Mount Vernon 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.
Mount Vernon detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Mount Vernon: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Mount Vernon: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Mount Vernon: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Mount Vernon: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Mount Vernon 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.