Best PlacesPayne Beach, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Payne Beach, 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.
Payne Beach ranks 3,052nd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low crime by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Payne Beach
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.
Payne Beach's strengths and weaknesses
Where Payne Beach ranks high
- Crime safetyBetter than 99% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 99% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 96% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 95% of towns
- School gradeA−, better than 95% of towns
Where Payne Beach ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 1% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,317 a month, better than only 8% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 9% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 13% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 15% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Payne Beach
A household needs to earn about $78,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Payne Beach home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $103,216, 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 Payne Beach's effective rate of 2.52%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Payne Beach
Payne Beach 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 Payne Beach.
Who works in Payne Beach, and how
Work in Payne Beach centers on education and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 76%
- Work from home 22%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Payne Beach
Payne Beach has more restaurants and bars per resident than 99% of towns and more parkland per resident than 99% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Payne Beach and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Payne Beach, month by month
Payne Beach sees roughly 71 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 36, with lows near 20. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 36° | 28° | 20° |
| April | 59° | 47° | 36° |
| July | 85° | 73° | 62° |
| October | 66° | 54° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Payne Beach
The nearest airport, Frederick Douglass/Greater Rochester International, is about 14 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Pittsburgh International, about 233 miles away.
The best schools in and around Payne Beach
Schools across Payne Beach average an A−, better than 95% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Northwood Elementary SchoolA · 68% proficient
- Village Elementary SchoolA− · 60% proficient
Top middle schools
- Merton Williams Middle SchoolB+ · 48% proficient
Top high schools
- Hilton High SchoolA+ · 97% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Payne Beach school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Payne Beach 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 Payne Beach against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Payne Beach
Is Payne Beach a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Payne Beach ranks 3,052nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low crime, low disaster risk, 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 Payne Beach expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $240,440. The overall cost of living runs about 0% above the national average. Set against a $103,216 median income, cost of living beats 82% of towns.
Is Payne Beach safe?
Yes, Payne Beach is safer than 99% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $119 per resident a year.
Compare Payne Beach with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Payne Beach. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Payne Beach 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.
Payne Beach detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Payne Beach: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Payne Beach: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Payne Beach: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Payne Beach: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Payne Beach 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.