Best PlacesQueens County, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in Queens County, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Queens County ranks 667th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 15 minutes away. Its strengths are big-city access and walkability. The cost shows up in taxes, car insurance costs, and long commutes.
The best neighborhoods in Queens County
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.
Queens County's strengths and weaknesses
Queens County ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Big-city access is the standout, in the top 1% of counties. Walkability and transit follow.
The one real hole is taxes, near the bottom of the country. Car insurance costs and long commutes also cost it ground. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Queens County ranks high
- Big-city accessBetter than 99% of counties
- WalkabilityBetter than 99% of counties
- TransitBetter than 99% of counties
- Cell coverageBetter than 99% of counties
- BikingBetter than 98% of counties
Where Queens County ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 1% of counties
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 1% of counties
- Short commute42.9 minutes each way, better than only 1% of counties
- QuietBetter than only 1% of counties
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 1% of counties
What it costs to buy a home in Queens County
A household needs to earn about $197,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Queens County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $92,601, 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 Queens County's effective rate of 0.73%, 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 Queens County
Queens County's age mix sits close to the national median, 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 Queens County.
Who works in Queens County, and how
Work in Queens County centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 38%
- Work from home 13%
- Transit, walk, or bike 49%
Life in Queens County
Queens County has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most counties and more late-night spots per resident than 86% of counties. The coast is about 15 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Queens County and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Queens County growing, and who is moving in?
Queens County has grown about 1% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from the rest of the New York, NY metro.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Queens County go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Queens County, month by month
Queens County sees roughly 69 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 44, with lows near 29. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 44° | 36° | 29° |
| April | 65° | 53° | 45° |
| July | 90° | 80° | 72° |
| October | 70° | 61° | 54° |
Flying in and out of Queens County
Laguardia sits about 4 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 Queens County
Schools across Queens County average a B+, better than 91% of counties.
Top elementary schools
- Ps 242 Leonard P Stavisky Early Childhood SchoolA+ · 95% proficient
- 30th Avenue School (the) (g & T Citywide)A+ · 95% proficient
- Ps 196 Grand Central ParkwayA+ · 94% proficient
Top middle schools
- Ms 158 Marie CurieA+ · 87% proficient
- Jhs 67 Louis PasteurA+ · 84% proficient
- Jhs 74 Nathaniel HawthorneA+ · 79% proficient
Top high schools
- Townsend Harris High SchoolA+ · 100% proficient
- Maspeth High SchoolA+ · 100% proficient
- Francis Lewis High SchoolA+ · 98% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Queens County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Queens County 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 Queens County against the other 3,143 counties.
Who Queens County suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 13% already work from home.
Retirees
Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.
Common questions about living in Queens County
Is Queens County a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Queens County ranks 667th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on big-city access, walkability, and transit, and lowest on taxes and car insurance costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Queens County expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $759,850. The overall cost of living runs about 40% above the national average. Set against a $92,601 median income, cost of living beats 13% of counties.
Is Queens County safe?
Yes, Queens County is safer than 70% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $295 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Queens County?
July highs average about 90 degrees, and January highs near 44 with lows near 29. That works out to about 69 pleasant days a year, more than 20% of counties.
Is Queens County good for families?
Schools beat 91% of counties, crime safety beats 70%, and childcare runs $1,344 a month.
Is Queens County good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 13% of counties, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 65% of counties. About 13% of workers already work from home.
Compare Queens County with other counties
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Queens County. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Queens County 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.
Queens County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Queens County: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Queens County: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Queens County: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Queens County: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Queens County 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.