Best PlacesNew York, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the New York metro, 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.
Photo by Percival Kestreltail, CC BY-SA 3.0, via commons
New York ranks 67th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 16 minutes away. Its strengths are walkability and big-city access. The cost shows up in long commutes, noise, and taxes.
The best neighborhoods in the New York metro
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 New York
The towns and districts of the New York metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
New Rochelle, White Plains & Huntington Station
Tree cover is thicker, local pay stretches further, and schools score higher.
Paterson, Wayne & Clifton
Streets are more car-dependent and transit reaches fewer jobs.
Manhattan & Queens
Biking is better, though it is noisier.
Brentwood, Hempstead & Elmont
Incomes run higher and fewer homes sit empty.
Freeport, Long Beach & Valley Stream
Commutes are longer.
Lakewood, Edison & Elizabeth
More residents vote and crime runs lower.
Brooklyn
Fewer adults hold degrees.
Bronx
More households have young kids, though health care is harder to reach.
Newark
Prices have run up more.
New York shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 1% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
New York's strengths and weaknesses
New York 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 metro areas. Big-city access and transit follow.
The one real hole is long commutes, near the bottom of the country. Noise and taxes also cost it ground. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where New York ranks high
- WalkabilityBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than 99% of metro areas
- TransitBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Household income$114,094 median, better than 96% of metro areas
- BikingBetter than 92% of metro areas
Where New York ranks low
- Short commute35.7 minutes each way, better than only 1% of metro areas
- QuietBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 3% of metro areas
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 7% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$1,421 a month, better than only 8% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in New York
A household needs to earn about $201,000 a year to comfortably buy the median New York home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $114,094, 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 New York's effective rate of 1.35%, 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 New York
New York'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 New York.
Who works in New York, and how
Work in New York centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 50%
- Work from home 16%
- Transit, walk, or bike 33%
Life in New York
New York has more restaurants and bars per resident than 87% of metro areas and less parkland per resident than most metro areas. The coast is about 16 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of New York and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is New York growing, and who is moving in?
New York has grown about 4% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Philadelphia, PA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving New York go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in New York, month by month
New York sees roughly 68 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 New York
Laguardia sits about 8 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 New York
Schools across New York average a B, better than 86% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Success Academy Charter School-harlem 3A+ · 98% proficient
- Jeffrey Ratner-robert Seaman Elementary SchoolA+ · 96% proficient
- Mcvey Elementary SchoolA+ · 96% proficient
Top middle schools
- Christa Mcauliffe School (the) /is 187A+ · 95% proficient
- Is 98 Bay AcademyA+ · 93% proficient
- Nyc Lab Ms For Collaborative StudiesA+ · 93% proficient
Top high schools
- Sanford H Calhoun High SchoolA+ · 100% proficient
- Jericho Senior High SchoolA+ · 100% proficient
- Harborfields High SchoolA+ · 100% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every New York school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
New York 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 New York against the other 386 metro areas.
Who New York suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 16% already work from home.
Retirees
Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.
Common questions about living in New York
Is New York a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, New York ranks 67th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on walkability, big-city access, and transit, and lowest on long commutes and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is New York expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $716,050. The overall cost of living runs about 34% above the national average. Set against a $114,094 median income, cost of living beats 38% of metro areas.
Is New York safe?
Yes, New York is safer than 62% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $282 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in New York?
July highs average about 88 degrees, and January highs near 43 with lows near 28. That works out to about 68 pleasant days a year, more than 19% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in New York?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are New Rochelle, White Plains & Huntington Station, Paterson, Wayne & Clifton, and Manhattan & Queens. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is New York good for families?
Schools beat 86% of metro areas, crime safety beats 62%, and childcare runs $1,421 a month.
Is New York good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 38% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 91% of metro areas. About 16% of workers already work from home.
Compare New York with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to New York. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in New York 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.
New York detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for New York: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in New York: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of New York: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in New York: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
New York 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.