Best PlacesOld Saybrook, CT Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Old Saybrook, 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.
Old Saybrook ranks 5,286th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on civic engagement by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Old Saybrook
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.
Old Saybrook's strengths and weaknesses
Where Old Saybrook ranks high
- Voter turnoutBetter than 99% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 99% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 96% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 96% of towns
- TransitBetter than 95% of towns
Where Old Saybrook ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,583 a month, better than only 2% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 5% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 6% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 14% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 15% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Old Saybrook
A household needs to earn about $142,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Old Saybrook home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $119,037, 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 Old Saybrook's effective rate of 0.96%, 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 Old Saybrook
Old Saybrook 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 Old Saybrook.
Who works in Old Saybrook, and how
Work in Old Saybrook centers on education and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 70%
- Work from home 27%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Old Saybrook
Old Saybrook has more restaurants and bars per resident than 97% of towns and more parkland per resident than 92% of towns. The coast is about 3 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Old Saybrook and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Old Saybrook, month by month
Old Saybrook sees roughly 80 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 40, with lows near 26. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 40° | 32° | 26° |
| April | 59° | 50° | 42° |
| July | 85° | 75° | 67° |
| October | 66° | 57° | 49° |
Flying in and out of Old Saybrook
The nearest airport, Tweed/New Haven, is about 26 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Bradley International, about 47 miles away.
The best schools in and around Old Saybrook
Schools across Old Saybrook average a B+, better than 80% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Mile Creek SchoolA+ · 77% proficient
- Kathleen E. Goodwin SchoolA− · 58% proficient
Top middle schools
- Lyme-old Lyme Middle SchoolA · 65% proficient
- Old Saybrook Middle SchoolA− · 57% proficient
Top high schools
- Lyme-old Lyme High SchoolA · 72% proficient
- Old Saybrook Senior High SchoolB · 50% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Old Saybrook school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Old Saybrook 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 Old Saybrook against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Old Saybrook
Is Old Saybrook a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Old Saybrook ranks 5,286th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on civic engagement, health care access, and fast internet, and lowest on childcare costs and an overheated housing market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Old Saybrook expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $530,863. The overall cost of living runs about 14% above the national average. Set against a $119,037 median income, cost of living beats 88% of towns.
Is Old Saybrook safe?
Yes, Old Saybrook is safer than 71% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $195 per resident a year.
Compare Old Saybrook with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Old Saybrook. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Old Saybrook 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.
Old Saybrook detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Old Saybrook: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Old Saybrook: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Old Saybrook: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Old Saybrook: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Old Saybrook 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.