Best PlacesRye Beach, NH Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Rye Beach, 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.
Rye Beach ranks 350th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on high incomes by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Rye 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.
Rye Beach's strengths and weaknesses
Where Rye Beach ranks high
- Household income$186,710 median, better than 99% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 99% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 99% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 98% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 98% of towns
Where Rye Beach ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 3% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,375 a month, better than only 7% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 11% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 20% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Rye Beach
A household needs to earn about $279,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Rye Beach home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $186,710, 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 Rye Beach's effective rate of 0.93%, 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 Rye Beach
Rye 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 Rye Beach.
Who works in Rye Beach, and how
Work in Rye Beach centers on manufacturing 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 62%
- Work from home 36%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Rye Beach
The coast is about 4 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Rye Beach, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Rye Beach, month by month
Rye Beach sees roughly 72 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 39, with lows near 20. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 39° | 29° | 20° |
| April | 58° | 46° | 36° |
| July | 85° | 73° | 63° |
| October | 66° | 54° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Rye Beach
The nearest airport, Portsmouth International at Pease, is about 7 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Edward Lawrence Logan International, about 44 miles away.
The best schools in and around Rye Beach
Schools across Rye Beach average an A−, better than 91% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Rye Elementary SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
- North Hampton SchoolA · 63% proficient
Top middle schools
- Rye Junior High SchoolA · 65% proficient
Top high schools
- Portsmouth High SchoolB+ · 55% proficient
- Winnacunnet High SchoolB+ · 52% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Rye Beach school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Rye 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 Rye Beach against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Rye Beach
Is Rye Beach a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Rye Beach ranks 350th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on high incomes, low taxes, and health care access, and lowest on an overheated housing market and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Rye Beach expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,048,677. The overall cost of living runs about 42% above the national average. Set against a $186,710 median income, cost of living beats 98% of towns.
Is Rye Beach safe?
Yes, Rye Beach is safer than 98% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $137 per resident a year.
Compare Rye Beach with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Rye Beach. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Rye 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.
Rye Beach detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Rye Beach: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Rye Beach: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Rye Beach: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Rye Beach: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Rye 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.