Best PlacesMountain Dale, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Mountain Dale, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Mountain Dale ranks 19,503rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on heat safety by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Mountain Dale
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.
Mountain Dale's strengths and weaknesses
Where Mountain Dale ranks high
- Heat safetyBetter than 98% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 95% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 92% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 89% of towns
- TransitBetter than 88% of towns
Where Mountain Dale ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 1% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 8% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 8% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 15% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Mountain Dale
A household needs to earn about $67,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Mountain Dale home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $80,780, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
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 Mountain Dale's effective rate of 2.89%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 5 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Mountain Dale
Mountain Dale'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 Mountain Dale.
Who works in Mountain Dale, and how
Work in Mountain Dale centers on education and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 67%
- Work from home 25%
- Transit, walk, or bike 8%
Life in Mountain Dale
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Mountain Dale.
What the weather is like in Mountain Dale, month by month
Mountain Dale sees roughly 69 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 35, with lows near 17. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 35° | 26° | 17° |
| April | 58° | 45° | 34° |
| July | 83° | 71° | 59° |
| October | 63° | 51° | 41° |
Flying in and out of Mountain Dale
The nearest airport, New York Stewart International, is about 25 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Newark Liberty International, about 71 miles away.
The best schools in and around Mountain Dale
Schools across Mountain Dale average a B, better than 68% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Emma C Chase SchoolA− · 60% proficient
- Ellenville Elementary SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
- Benjamin Cosor Elementary SchoolC− · 28% proficient
Top middle schools
- Robert J Kaiser Middle SchoolD− · 14% proficient
Top high schools
- Monticello High SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
- Ellenville Junior/senior High SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
- Fallsburg Junior Senior High SchoolB+ · 55% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Mountain Dale school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Mountain Dale 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 Mountain Dale against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Mountain Dale
Is Mountain Dale a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Mountain Dale ranks 19,503rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on heat safety, big-city access, and an educated workforce, and lowest on property 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 Mountain Dale expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $198,674. The overall cost of living runs about 10% below the national average. Set against a $80,780 median income, cost of living beats 65% of towns.
Is Mountain Dale safe?
Yes, Mountain Dale is safer than 59% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $280 per resident a year.
Compare Mountain Dale with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Mountain Dale. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Mountain Dale 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.
Mountain Dale detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Mountain Dale: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Mountain Dale: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Mountain Dale: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Mountain Dale: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Mountain Dale 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.