Best PlacesUniondale, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Uniondale, 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.
Uniondale ranks 1,066th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on fast internet by a wide margin, and car insurance costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Uniondale
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.
Uniondale's strengths and weaknesses
Where Uniondale ranks high
- Internet speedBetter than 98% of cities
- Big-city accessBetter than 95% of cities
- WalkabilityBetter than 94% of cities
- Low vacancyBetter than 91% of cities
- TransitBetter than 89% of cities
Where Uniondale ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 3% of cities
- QuietBetter than only 6% of cities
- Local economyBetter than only 7% of cities
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 10% of cities
- Low property taxBetter than only 12% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Uniondale
A household needs to earn about $152,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Uniondale home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $138,462; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Uniondale's effective rate of 1.75%, 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 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Uniondale
Uniondale runs younger 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 Uniondale.
Who works in Uniondale, and how
Work in Uniondale 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 73%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 18%
Life in Uniondale
Uniondale has more restaurants and bars per resident than 73% of cities and more parkland per resident than 87% of cities. The coast is about 11 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Uniondale and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Uniondale, month by month
Uniondale sees roughly 73 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 44, with lows near 26. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 44° | 35° | 26° |
| April | 62° | 51° | 42° |
| July | 86° | 77° | 69° |
| October | 69° | 59° | 50° |
Flying in and out of Uniondale
John F Kennedy International sits about 11 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 31.0 million passengers in 2025, with 249 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Uniondale
Schools across Uniondale average a C+, better than 47% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Mcvey Elementary SchoolA+ · 96% proficient
- Smith Street Elementary SchoolA− · 58% proficient
- Jackson Main Elementary SchoolB+ · 51% proficient
Top middle schools
- Merrick Avenue Middle SchoolA+ · 75% proficient
- Clarke Middle SchoolA+ · 71% proficient
- Alverta B Gray Schultz Middle SchoolD+ · 26% proficient
Top high schools
- Sanford H Calhoun High SchoolA+ · 100% proficient
- East Meadow High SchoolA+ · 98% proficient
- Uniondale High SchoolA+ · 87% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Uniondale school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Uniondale 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 Uniondale against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Uniondale suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 10% already work from home.
Retirees
Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.
Common questions about living in Uniondale
Is Uniondale a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Uniondale ranks 1,066th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on fast internet, big-city access, and walkability, and lowest on car insurance costs and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Uniondale expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $513,194. The overall cost of living runs about 34% above the national average. Set against a $138,462 median income, cost of living beats 53% of cities.
Is Uniondale safe?
Uniondale is safer than 34% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $360 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Uniondale?
July highs average about 86 degrees, and January highs near 44 with lows near 26. That works out to about 73 pleasant days a year, more than 33% of cities.
Is Uniondale good for families?
Schools beat 47% of cities, crime safety beats 34%, and childcare runs $1,476 a month.
Compare Uniondale with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Uniondale. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Uniondale 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.
Uniondale detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Uniondale: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Uniondale: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Uniondale: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Uniondale: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Uniondale 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.