Best PlacesRed Hook, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Red Hook, 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.
Red Hook ranks 2,167th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on heat safety by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Red Hook
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.
Red Hook's strengths and weaknesses
Where Red Hook ranks high
- Heat safetyBetter than 97% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 97% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 96% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 96% of towns
- Household income$122,579 median, better than 94% of towns
Where Red Hook ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 2% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 8% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 9% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,309 a month, better than only 10% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 15% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Red Hook
A household needs to earn about $128,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Red Hook home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $122,579; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Red Hook's effective rate of 1.58%, 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 Red Hook
Red Hook 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 Red Hook.
Who works in Red Hook, and how
Work in Red Hook centers on education and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 71%
- Work from home 21%
- Transit, walk, or bike 8%
Life in Red Hook
Red Hook has more restaurants and bars per resident than 84% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Red Hook and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Red Hook, month by month
Red Hook sees roughly 99 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 37, with lows near 21. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 37° | 28° | 21° |
| April | 61° | 48° | 38° |
| July | 85° | 73° | 62° |
| October | 65° | 53° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Red Hook
The nearest airport, New York Stewart International, is about 37 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Bradley International, about 60 miles away.
The best schools in and around Red Hook
Schools across Red Hook average an A−, better than 92% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Chancellor Livingston Elementary SchoolA · 70% proficient
- Mill Road-intermediate GradesB+ · 55% proficient
Top middle schools
- Bulkeley Middle SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
- Linden Avenue Middle SchoolC− · 28% proficient
Top high schools
- Rhinebeck Senior High SchoolA+ · 98% proficient
- Red Hook Senior High SchoolA+ · 98% proficient
- Stissing Mountain Junior/senior High SchoolA+ · 94% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Red Hook school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Red Hook 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 Red Hook against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Red Hook
Is Red Hook a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Red Hook ranks 2,167th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on heat safety, an educated workforce, and health care access, and lowest on an overheated housing market 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 Red Hook expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $442,543. The overall cost of living runs about 21% above the national average. Set against a $122,579 median income, cost of living beats 82% of towns.
Is Red Hook safe?
Yes, Red Hook is safer than 92% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $186 per resident a year.
Compare Red Hook with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Red Hook. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Red Hook 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.
Red Hook detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Red Hook: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Red Hook: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Red Hook: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Red Hook: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Red Hook 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.