Best PlacesUpper East Side, Manhattan, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Upper East Side, Manhattan, 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.
Upper East Side, Manhattan ranks 248th of 5,983 U.S. neighborhoods on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 19 minutes away. Its strengths are walkability and big-city access. The cost shows up in taxes, empty homes, and noise.
The best neighborhoods in Upper East Side, Manhattan
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.
Upper East Side, Manhattan's strengths and weaknesses
Upper East Side, Manhattan ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Walkability is the standout, in the top 1% of neighborhoods. Big-city access and transit follow.
The one real hole is taxes, near the bottom of the country. Empty homes and noise also cost it ground. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Upper East Side, Manhattan ranks high
- WalkabilityBetter than 99% of neighborhoods
- Big-city accessBetter than 99% of neighborhoods
- TransitBetter than 99% of neighborhoods
- School gradeA, better than 98% of neighborhoods
- Educational attainmentBetter than 96% of neighborhoods
Where Upper East Side, Manhattan ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 1% of neighborhoods
- Low vacancyBetter than only 4% of neighborhoods
- QuietBetter than only 5% of neighborhoods
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 8% of neighborhoods
- Tree shadeBetter than only 11% of neighborhoods
What it costs to buy a home in Upper East Side, Manhattan
A household needs to earn about $361,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Upper East Side, Manhattan home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $172,246, 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 Upper East Side, Manhattan's effective rate of 0.79%, 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 Upper East Side, Manhattan
Upper East Side, Manhattan 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 Upper East Side, Manhattan.
Who works in Upper East Side, Manhattan, and how
Work in Upper East Side, Manhattan centers on professional & technical and finance & insurance. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 9%
- Work from home 28%
- Transit, walk, or bike 63%
Life in Upper East Side, Manhattan
Upper East Side, Manhattan has more restaurants and bars per resident than 71% of neighborhoods. The coast is about 19 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Upper East Side, Manhattan and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Upper East Side, Manhattan, month by month
Upper East Side, Manhattan sees roughly 75 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 43, with lows near 28. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 43° | 35° | 28° |
| April | 65° | 53° | 44° |
| July | 88° | 78° | 70° |
| October | 69° | 60° | 52° |
Flying in and out of Upper East Side, Manhattan
Laguardia sits about 4 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 16.3 million passengers in 2025, with 118 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Upper East Side, Manhattan
Schools across Upper East Side, Manhattan average an A, better than 98% of neighborhoods.
Top elementary schools
- Ps 290 Manhattan New SchoolA+ · 96% proficient
- Brooklyn School Of InquiryA+ · 93% proficient
- Ps 6 Lillie D BlakeA+ · 90% proficient
Top middle schools
- Mark Twain Is 239 For The Gifted And TalentedA+ · 83% proficient
- East Side Middle SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
- Yorkville East Middle SchoolA+ · 75% proficient
Top high schools
- Eleanor Roosevelt High SchoolA+ · 98% proficient
- Talent Unlimited High SchoolA+ · 94% proficient
- High School For Climate Justice (the)A+ · 81% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Upper East Side, Manhattan school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Upper East Side, Manhattan 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 Upper East Side, Manhattan against the other 5,982 neighborhoods.
Who Upper East Side, Manhattan suits
Common questions about living in Upper East Side, Manhattan
Is Upper East Side, Manhattan a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Upper East Side, Manhattan ranks 248th of 5,983 neighborhoods. It scores highest on walkability, big-city access, and transit, and lowest on taxes and empty homes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Upper East Side, Manhattan expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,385,593. The overall cost of living runs about 116% above the national average. Set against a $172,246 median income, cost of living beats 62% of neighborhoods.
Is Upper East Side, Manhattan safe?
Yes, Upper East Side, Manhattan is safer than 77% of neighborhoods. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $328 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Upper East Side, Manhattan?
July highs average about 88 degrees, and January highs near 43 with lows near 28. That works out to about 75 pleasant days a year, more than 33% of neighborhoods.
Is Upper East Side, Manhattan good for families?
Schools beat 98% of neighborhoods, crime safety beats 77%, and childcare runs $1,344 a month.
Is Upper East Side, Manhattan good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 62% of neighborhoods, though advertised internet speeds beat only 17% of neighborhoods. About 28% of workers already work from home.
Compare Upper East Side, Manhattan with other neighborhoods
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Upper East Side, Manhattan. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Upper East Side, Manhattan 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.
Upper East Side, Manhattan detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Upper East Side, Manhattan: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Upper East Side, Manhattan: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Upper East Side, Manhattan: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Upper East Side, Manhattan: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Upper East Side, Manhattan 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.