Best PlacesSea Cliff, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Sea Cliff, 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.
Sea Cliff ranks 277th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on good schools by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Sea Cliff
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.
Sea Cliff's strengths and weaknesses
Where Sea Cliff ranks high
- School gradeA+, better than 99% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 99% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 99% of towns
- Household income$191,322 median, better than 99% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 99% of towns
Where Sea Cliff ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,476 a month, better than only 4% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 6% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 7% of towns
- Short commute36.2 minutes each way, better than only 11% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 14% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Sea Cliff
A household needs to earn about $287,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Sea Cliff home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $191,322, 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 Sea Cliff's effective rate of 1.34%, 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 Sea Cliff
Sea Cliff 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 Sea Cliff.
Who works in Sea Cliff, and how
Work in Sea Cliff centers on professional & technical and health care & social. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 56%
- Work from home 27%
- Transit, walk, or bike 17%
Life in Sea Cliff
Sea Cliff has more restaurants and bars per resident than 80% of towns. The coast is about 5 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Sea Cliff and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Sea Cliff, month by month
Sea Cliff sees roughly 70 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 Sea Cliff
Laguardia sits about 13 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 Sea Cliff
Schools across Sea Cliff average an A+, better than 99% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Sea Cliff Elementary SchoolA+ · 93% proficient
- Glenwood Landing Elementary SchoolA+ · 91% proficient
- North Shore Middle SchoolA+ · 87% proficient
Top middle schools
- Carrie Palmer Weber Middle SchoolA · 64% proficient
Top high schools
- Paul D Schreiber Senior High SchoolA+ · 99% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Sea Cliff school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Sea Cliff 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 Sea Cliff against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Sea Cliff
Is Sea Cliff a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Sea Cliff ranks 277th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on good schools, walkability, and big-city access, and lowest on childcare costs 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 Sea Cliff expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,021,581. The overall cost of living runs about 48% above the national average. Set against a $191,322 median income, cost of living beats 96% of towns.
Is Sea Cliff safe?
Sea Cliff is safer than 45% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $318 per resident a year.
Compare Sea Cliff with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Sea Cliff. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Sea Cliff 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.
Sea Cliff detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Sea Cliff: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Sea Cliff: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Sea Cliff: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Sea Cliff: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Sea Cliff 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.