Best PlacesNassau, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Nassau, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Nassau ranks 3,788th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on good schools by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Nassau
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.
Nassau's strengths and weaknesses
Where Nassau ranks high
- School gradeA, better than 97% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 96% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 92% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 90% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 88% of towns
Where Nassau ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 4% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,317 a month, better than only 8% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 12% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 15% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Nassau
A household needs to earn about $86,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Nassau home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $103,062, 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 Nassau's effective rate of 1.89%, 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 Nassau
Nassau 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 Nassau.
Who works in Nassau, and how
Work in Nassau centers on public administration and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 83%
- Work from home 15%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Nassau
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Nassau.
What the weather is like in Nassau, month by month
Nassau sees roughly 74 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 34, with lows near 16. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 34° | 25° | 16° |
| April | 58° | 45° | 34° |
| July | 83° | 71° | 59° |
| October | 63° | 51° | 40° |
Flying in and out of Nassau
The nearest airport, Albany International, is about 18 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Bradley International, about 62 miles away.
The best schools in and around Nassau
Schools across Nassau average an A, better than 97% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Castleton Elementary SchoolA+ · 77% proficient
- Miller Hill SchoolA+ · 75% proficient
- Donald P Sutherland SchoolA · 70% proficient
Top middle schools
- Howard L Goff SchoolA+ · 68% proficient
- Ichabod Crane Middle SchoolB+ · 52% proficient
- Algonquin Middle SchoolB · 46% proficient
Top high schools
- Ichabod Crane Senior High SchoolA+ · 98% proficient
- Averill Park High SchoolA+ · 97% proficient
- Columbia High SchoolA+ · 97% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Nassau school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Nassau 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 Nassau against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Nassau
Is Nassau a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Nassau ranks 3,788th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on good schools, low crime, and health care access, and lowest on property taxes and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Nassau expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $286,957. The overall cost of living runs about 3% below the national average. Set against a $103,062 median income, cost of living beats 85% of towns.
Is Nassau safe?
Yes, Nassau is safer than 96% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $156 per resident a year.
Compare Nassau with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Nassau. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Nassau 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.
Nassau detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Nassau: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Nassau: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Nassau: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Nassau: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Nassau 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.