Best PlacesSheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, NY Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, 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.

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Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn ranks 2,094th of 5,983 U.S. neighborhoods on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on big-city access by a wide margin, and taxes are the weak spot.

#2,094
of 5,983 neighborhoods
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 5,983 neighborhoods
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

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.

Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn's strengths and weaknesses

Top 3%Big-city access
Top 5%Transit
Top 10%Walkability
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn with other neighborhoods.

Where Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn ranks high

  • Big-city accessBetter than 98% of neighborhoods
  • TransitBetter than 95% of neighborhoods
  • WalkabilityBetter than 94% of neighborhoods
  • Internet speedBetter than 94% of neighborhoods
  • Crime safetyBetter than 93% of neighborhoods

Where Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn ranks low

  • Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 1% of neighborhoods
  • Short commute42.0 minutes each way, better than only 2% of neighborhoods
  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 5% of neighborhoods
  • Tree shadeBetter than only 11% of neighborhoods
  • State infrastructureBetter than only 14% of neighborhoods

What it costs to buy a home in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn

A household needs to earn about $223,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $80,439, so buying stretches a typical household.

Income to buy the median home
$223,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$5,199
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $867,285 home
Median rent
$1,793
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$4,422
Property tax$488
Homeowners insurance$289

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 Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn's effective rate of 0.68%, 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.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn

Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn runs older than the country.

Median age
44
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
23%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.6
near the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1820%
18 to 3419%
35 to 4919%
50 to 6419%
65 and older23%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn.


Who works in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, and how

Work in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
19%
above the national average
Unemployment
3.6%
below the national average
Job growth
+2.0%
/y 2019-2023, near the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social24%
Retail trade10%
Professional & technical10%
Transportation & warehousing8%
Education8%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 33%
  • Work from home 19%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 48%

Life in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn

Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn has less late-night activity than most neighborhoods. The coast is about 3 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
135
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 23.1 per 10,000 residents, more than 47% of neighborhoods
Coffee shops
16
about 2.7 per 10,000 residents, more than 62% of neighborhoods
Open past 10pm
~37
food and drink venues open late, about 6.3 per 10,000 residents, more than 33% of neighborhoods
To the coast
3 min
drive to the nearest ocean beaches

What the weather is like in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, month by month

Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn sees roughly 68 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 44, with lows near 27. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, September, and October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January44°35°27°
April63°51°43°
July87°77°70°
October70°60°51°

Flying in and out of Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn

John F Kennedy International sits about 9 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 31.0 million passengers in 2025, with 249 nonstop destinations.

Nearest airport
JFK
John F Kennedy International, about 9 miles
Airport size
Large hub
6th-busiest in the US, 249 nonstop destinations
Average drive
13 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn

Schools across Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn average a B+, better than 83% of neighborhoods.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn 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 Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn against the other 5,982 neighborhoods.


Who Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn suits

Families

Schools beat 83% of neighborhoods and crime safety beats 93%.

See the families priority ↑

Remote workers

Internet is fast and widely advertised and 19% already work from home.

See the remote-work priority ↑

Retirees

Health care access beats 76%.

See the retirees priority ↑


Common questions about living in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn

Is Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn ranks 2,094th of 5,983 neighborhoods. It scores highest on big-city access, transit, and walkability, and lowest on taxes and long commutes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $867,285. The overall cost of living runs about 30% above the national average. Set against a $80,439 median income, cost of living beats 25% of neighborhoods.

Is Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn safe?

Yes, Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn is safer than 93% of neighborhoods. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $228 per resident a year.

What is the weather like in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn?

July highs average about 87 degrees, and January highs near 44 with lows near 27. That works out to about 68 pleasant days a year, more than 21% of neighborhoods.

Is Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn good for families?

Schools beat 83% of neighborhoods, crime safety beats 93%, and childcare runs $1,344 a month.


Compare Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn with other neighborhoods


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn 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.

Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.