Best PlacesUlster Park, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Ulster Park, 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.
Ulster Park ranks 6,590th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on good schools by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Ulster Park
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.
Ulster Park's strengths and weaknesses
Where Ulster Park ranks high
- School gradeA, better than 97% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 95% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 94% of towns
- TransitBetter than 90% of towns
Where Ulster Park ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 3% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 9% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,308 a month, better than only 10% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 13% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 15% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Ulster Park
A household needs to earn about $89,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Ulster Park home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $109,504, 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 Ulster Park's effective rate of 1.95%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Ulster Park
Ulster Park runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Ulster Park.
Who works in Ulster Park, and how
Work in Ulster Park centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 80%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 9%
Life in Ulster Park
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Ulster Park.
What the weather is like in Ulster Park, month by month
Ulster Park sees roughly 98 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 37, with lows near 21. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 37° | 28° | 21° |
| April | 61° | 48° | 38° |
| July | 85° | 73° | 62° |
| October | 65° | 53° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Ulster Park
The nearest airport, New York Stewart International, is about 26 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Bradley International, about 67 miles away.
The best schools in and around Ulster Park
Schools across Ulster Park average an A, better than 97% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Robert R Graves SchoolA+ · 80% proficient
- North Park Elementary SchoolA− · 58% proficient
Top middle schools
- Bulkeley Middle SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
- New Paltz Middle SchoolA− · 55% proficient
- Haviland Middle SchoolB · 47% proficient
Top high schools
- New Paltz Senior High SchoolA+ · 97% proficient
- Franklin D Roosevelt Senior High SchoolA+ · 94% proficient
- Kingston High SchoolA+ · 92% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Ulster Park school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Ulster Park 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 Ulster Park against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Ulster Park
Is Ulster Park a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Ulster Park ranks 6,590th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on good schools, heat safety, and tree cover, and lowest on property taxes and car insurance costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Ulster Park expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $293,586. The overall cost of living runs about 6% above the national average. Set against a $109,504 median income, cost of living beats 80% of towns.
Is Ulster Park safe?
Yes, Ulster Park is safer than 83% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $205 per resident a year.
Compare Ulster Park with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Ulster Park. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Ulster Park 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.
Ulster Park detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Ulster Park: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Ulster Park: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Ulster Park: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Ulster Park: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Ulster Park 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.