Best PlacesShelter Island, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Shelter Island, 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.
Shelter Island ranks 5,858th 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 Shelter Island
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.
Shelter Island's strengths and weaknesses
Where Shelter Island ranks high
- Household income$170,467 median, better than 98% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 98% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 96% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 95% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 93% of towns
Where Shelter Island ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 2% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,476 a month, better than only 4% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 9% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Short commute36.5 minutes each way, better than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Shelter Island
A household needs to earn about $269,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Shelter Island home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $170,467, 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 Shelter Island's effective rate of 0.56%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Shelter Island
Shelter Island 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 Shelter Island.
Who works in Shelter Island, and how
Work in Shelter Island centers on transportation & warehousing and admin & support services. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 50%
- Work from home 28%
- Transit, walk, or bike 22%
Life in Shelter Island
The coast is about 4 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Shelter Island, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Shelter Island, month by month
Shelter Island sees roughly 80 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 degrees. January highs sit near 42, with lows near 24. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 42° | 33° | 24° |
| April | 58° | 47° | 37° |
| July | 82° | 73° | 64° |
| October | 66° | 56° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Shelter Island
The nearest airport, Tweed/New Haven, is about 32 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Bradley International, about 63 miles away.
The best schools in and around Shelter Island
Schools across Shelter Island average an A, better than 91% of towns.
Top high schools
- Shelter Island SchoolA · 65% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Shelter Island school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Shelter Island 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 Shelter Island against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Shelter Island
Is Shelter Island a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Shelter Island ranks 5,858th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on high incomes, fast internet, 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 Shelter Island expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,064,750. The overall cost of living runs about 84% above the national average. Set against a $170,467 median income, cost of living beats 61% of towns.
Is Shelter Island safe?
Yes, Shelter Island is safer than 64% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $287 per resident a year.
Compare Shelter Island with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Shelter Island. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Shelter Island 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.
Shelter Island detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Shelter Island: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Shelter Island: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Shelter Island: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Shelter Island: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Shelter Island 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.