Best PlacesSouthfields, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Southfields, 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.
Southfields ranks 18,731st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on big-city access by a wide margin, and long commutes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Southfields
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.
Southfields' strengths and weaknesses
Where Southfields ranks high
- Big-city accessBetter than 99% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 97% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 96% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 96% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
Where Southfields ranks low
- Short commute46.9 minutes each way, better than only 1% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 2% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 4% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 5% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 8% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Southfields
A household needs to earn about $159,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Southfields home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $110,696, 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 Southfields' effective rate of 1.81%, 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 Southfields
Southfields's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Southfields.
Who works in Southfields, and how
Work in Southfields centers on retail trade and education. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 70%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 20%
Life in Southfields
The coast is about 46 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Southfields, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Southfields, month by month
Southfields sees roughly 75 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 37, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 37° | 30° | 23° |
| April | 60° | 50° | 41° |
| July | 85° | 75° | 66° |
| October | 65° | 55° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Southfields
The nearest airport, New York Stewart International, is about 18 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Laguardia, about 36 miles away.
The best schools in and around Southfields
Schools across Southfields average an A−, better than 92% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- George Grant Mason Elementary SchoolB · 48% proficient
Top middle schools
- Monroe-woodbury Middle SchoolB− · 42% proficient
- Pomona Middle SchoolF · 6% proficient
Top high schools
- Monroe-woodbury High SchoolA+ · 97% proficient
- George F Baker High SchoolA+ · 90% proficient
- Ramapo High SchoolA− · 65% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Southfields school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Southfields 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 Southfields against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Southfields
Is Southfields a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Southfields ranks 18,731st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on big-city access, fast internet, and health care access, and lowest on long commutes and an overheated housing market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Southfields expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $535,991. The overall cost of living runs about 25% above the national average. Set against a $110,696 median income, cost of living beats 64% of towns.
Is Southfields safe?
Southfields is safer than 19% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $448 per resident a year.
Compare Southfields with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Southfields. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Southfields 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.
Southfields detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Southfields: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Southfields: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Southfields: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Southfields: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Southfields 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.