Best PlacesShrub Oak, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Shrub Oak, 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.
Shrub Oak ranks 2,180th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on population health by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Shrub Oak
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.
Shrub Oak's strengths and weaknesses
Where Shrub Oak ranks high
- Health outlookBetter than 99% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 99% of towns
- Household income$165,532 median, better than 98% of towns
- School gradeA, better than 97% of towns
- TransitBetter than 96% of towns
Where Shrub Oak ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 2% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,476 a month, better than only 4% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 6% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 6% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 15% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Shrub Oak
A household needs to earn about $160,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Shrub Oak home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $165,532, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
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 Shrub Oak's effective rate of 2.17%, 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 Shrub Oak
Shrub Oak runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Shrub Oak.
Who works in Shrub Oak, and how
Work in Shrub Oak centers on education and professional & technical. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 88%
- Work from home 6%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Shrub Oak
The coast is about 32 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Shrub Oak, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Shrub Oak, month by month
Shrub Oak sees roughly 73 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 41, with lows near 21. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 41° | 31° | 21° |
| April | 63° | 50° | 38° |
| July | 86° | 75° | 63° |
| October | 68° | 55° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Shrub Oak
The nearest airport, New York Stewart International, is about 19 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Laguardia, about 38 miles away.
The best schools in and around Shrub Oak
Schools across Shrub Oak average an A, better than 97% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Benjamin Franklin Elementary SchoolA · 70% proficient
Top middle schools
- Lakeland-copper Beech Middle SchoolA · 59% proficient
Top high schools
- Lakeland High SchoolA+ · 96% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Shrub Oak school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Shrub Oak 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 Shrub Oak against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Shrub Oak
Is Shrub Oak a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Shrub Oak ranks 2,180th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on population health, big-city access, and high incomes, and lowest on property taxes and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Shrub Oak expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $517,032. The overall cost of living runs about 20% above the national average. Set against a $165,532 median income, cost of living beats 96% of towns.
Is Shrub Oak safe?
Shrub Oak is safer than 42% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $328 per resident a year.
Compare Shrub Oak with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Shrub Oak. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Shrub Oak 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.
Shrub Oak detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Shrub Oak: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Shrub Oak: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Shrub Oak: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Shrub Oak: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Shrub Oak 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.