Best PlacesUpper West Side, Manhattan, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Upper West 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 West Side, Manhattan ranks 336th of 5,983 U.S. neighborhoods on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 18 minutes away. Its strengths are walkability and big-city access. The cost shows up in taxes, car insurance costs, and noise.
The best neighborhoods in Upper West 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 West Side, Manhattan's strengths and weaknesses
Upper West 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. Car insurance costs 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 West 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 96% of neighborhoods
- BikingBetter than 95% of neighborhoods
Where Upper West Side, Manhattan ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 1% of neighborhoods
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 7% of neighborhoods
- QuietBetter than only 12% of neighborhoods
- Low vacancyBetter than only 12% of neighborhoods
- State infrastructureBetter than only 14% of neighborhoods
What it costs to buy a home in Upper West Side, Manhattan
A household needs to earn about $381,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Upper West Side, Manhattan home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $162,245, 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 West Side, Manhattan's effective rate of 0.63%, 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 West Side, Manhattan
Upper West 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 West Side, Manhattan.
Who works in Upper West Side, Manhattan, and how
Work in Upper West Side, Manhattan centers on professional & technical and finance & insurance. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 8%
- Work from home 30%
- Transit, walk, or bike 62%
Life in Upper West Side, Manhattan
Upper West Side, Manhattan has more restaurants and bars per resident than 76% of neighborhoods. The coast is about 18 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Upper West Side, Manhattan and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Upper West Side, Manhattan, month by month
Upper West Side, Manhattan sees roughly 76 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 West Side, Manhattan
Laguardia sits about 5 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 West Side, Manhattan
Schools across Upper West Side, Manhattan average an A−, better than 96% of neighborhoods.
Top elementary schools
- Anderson School (the)A+ · 96% proficient
- Brooklyn School Of InquiryA+ · 93% proficient
- Ps 166 Richard Rogers School Of The Arts & Science (the)A+ · 93% proficient
Top middle schools
- Jhs 54 Booker T WashingtonA+ · 88% proficient
- Mark Twain Is 239 For The Gifted And TalentedA+ · 83% proficient
- Ms 245 Computer School (the)A+ · 70% proficient
Top high schools
- Fiorello H Laguardia High SchoolA+ · 100% proficient
- Manhattan/hunter Science High SchoolA+ · 98% proficient
- Midwood High SchoolA+ · 97% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Upper West Side, Manhattan school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Upper West 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 West Side, Manhattan against the other 5,982 neighborhoods.
Who Upper West Side, Manhattan suits
Common questions about living in Upper West Side, Manhattan
Is Upper West Side, Manhattan a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Upper West Side, Manhattan ranks 336th of 5,983 neighborhoods. It scores highest on walkability, big-city access, and transit, and lowest on 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 Upper West Side, Manhattan expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,493,241. The overall cost of living runs about 121% above the national average. Set against a $162,245 median income, cost of living beats 51% of neighborhoods.
Is Upper West Side, Manhattan safe?
Yes, Upper West Side, Manhattan is safer than 79% of neighborhoods. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $307 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Upper West Side, Manhattan?
July highs average about 88 degrees, and January highs near 43 with lows near 28. That works out to about 76 pleasant days a year, more than 34% of neighborhoods.
Is Upper West Side, Manhattan good for families?
Schools beat 96% of neighborhoods, crime safety beats 79%, and childcare runs $1,344 a month.
Is Upper West Side, Manhattan good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 51% of neighborhoods, though advertised internet speeds beat only 19% of neighborhoods. About 30% of workers already work from home.
Compare Upper West Side, Manhattan with other neighborhoods
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Upper West Side, Manhattan. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Upper West 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 West Side, Manhattan detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Upper West Side, Manhattan: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Upper West Side, Manhattan: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Upper West Side, Manhattan: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Upper West Side, Manhattan: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Upper West 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.