Best PlacesPlainview, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Plainview, 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.
Plainview ranks 129th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on good schools by a wide margin, and long commutes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Plainview
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.
Plainview's strengths and weaknesses
Where Plainview ranks high
- School gradeA+, better than 99% of cities
- Healthcare accessBetter than 98% of cities
- Household income$180,695 median, better than 97% of cities
- Internet speedBetter than 97% of cities
- Educational attainmentBetter than 95% of cities
Where Plainview ranks low
- Short commute35.1 minutes each way, better than only 6% of cities
- QuietBetter than only 7% of cities
- Low property taxBetter than only 8% of cities
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 10% of cities
- State infrastructureBetter than only 14% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Plainview
A household needs to earn about $237,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Plainview home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $180,695, 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 Plainview's effective rate of 1.98%, 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 Plainview
Plainview runs older than the country, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Plainview.
Who works in Plainview, and how
Work in Plainview centers on education and professional & technical. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 65%
- Work from home 24%
- Transit, walk, or bike 11%
Life in Plainview
Plainview has more restaurants and bars per resident than 77% of cities and more parkland per resident than 90% of cities. The coast is about 16 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Plainview and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Plainview, month by month
Plainview sees roughly 75 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 44, with lows near 26. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 44° | 35° | 26° |
| April | 62° | 51° | 42° |
| July | 86° | 77° | 69° |
| October | 69° | 59° | 50° |
Flying in and out of Plainview
John F Kennedy International sits about 18 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 31.0 million passengers in 2025, with 249 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Plainview
Schools across Plainview average an A+, better than 99% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Old Bethpage SchoolA+ · 93% proficient
- Judy Jacobs Parkway Elementary SchoolA+ · 93% proficient
- Pasadena Elementary SchoolA+ · 93% proficient
Top middle schools
- H B Mattlin Middle SchoolA+ · 85% proficient
- H B Thompson Middle SchoolA+ · 84% proficient
- Plainview-old Bethpage Middle SchoolA+ · 79% proficient
Top high schools
- Plainview-old Bethpage/jfk High SchoolA+ · 100% proficient
- Bethpage Senior High SchoolA+ · 99% proficient
- Syosset Senior High SchoolA+ · 98% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Plainview school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Plainview 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 Plainview against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Plainview suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 85% of cities, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 24% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Plainview
Is Plainview a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Plainview ranks 129th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on good schools, health care access, and high incomes, 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 Plainview expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $779,260. The overall cost of living runs about 39% above the national average. Set against a $180,695 median income, cost of living beats 85% of cities.
Is Plainview safe?
Yes, Plainview is safer than 68% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $268 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Plainview?
July highs average about 86 degrees, and January highs near 44 with lows near 26. That works out to about 75 pleasant days a year, more than 37% of cities.
Is Plainview good for families?
Schools beat 100% of cities, crime safety beats 68%, and childcare runs $1,476 a month.
Compare Plainview with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Plainview. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Plainview 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.
Plainview detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Plainview: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Plainview: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Plainview: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Plainview: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Plainview 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.