Best PlacesSouthold, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Southold, 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.
Southold ranks 8,957th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on fast internet by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Southold
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.
Southold's strengths and weaknesses
Where Southold ranks high
- Internet speedBetter than 98% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 97% of towns
- Household income$127,446 median, better than 94% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 94% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 94% of towns
Where Southold ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,476 a month, better than only 4% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 7% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 15% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Southold
A household needs to earn about $219,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Southold home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $127,446, 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 Southold's effective rate of 0.97%, 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 Southold
Southold runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Southold.
Who works in Southold, and how
Work in Southold centers on professional & technical and construction. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 76%
- Work from home 16%
- Transit, walk, or bike 8%
Life in Southold
Southold has more restaurants and bars per resident than 92% of towns. The coast is about 4 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Southold and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Southold, month by month
Southold 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 Southold
The nearest airport, Tweed/New Haven, is about 28 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Bradley International, about 62 miles away.
The best schools in and around Southold
Schools across Southold average an A−, better than 83% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Southold Elementary SchoolB+ · 53% proficient
- Greenport Elementary SchoolB · 45% proficient
Top high schools
- Greenport High SchoolA− · 65% proficient
- Southold Junior-senior High SchoolA− · 60% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Southold school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Southold 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 Southold against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Southold
Is Southold a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Southold ranks 8,957th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on fast internet, health care access, and high incomes, 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 Southold expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $819,729. The overall cost of living runs about 42% above the national average. Set against a $127,446 median income, cost of living beats 69% of towns.
Is Southold safe?
Southold is safer than 54% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $326 per resident a year.
Compare Southold with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Southold. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Southold 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.
Southold detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Southold: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Southold: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Southold: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Southold: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Southold 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.