Best PlacesWainscott, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Wainscott, 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.
Wainscott ranks 12,348th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on civic engagement by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Wainscott
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.
Wainscott's strengths and weaknesses
Where Wainscott ranks high
- Voter turnoutBetter than 99% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 98% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 98% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 97% of towns
- Short commute16.7 minutes each way, better than 95% of towns
Where Wainscott ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,476 a month, better than only 4% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 5% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 7% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 8% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Wainscott
A household needs to earn about $498,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Wainscott home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $130,763, 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 Wainscott's effective rate of 0.45%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Wainscott
Wainscott 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 Wainscott.
Who works in Wainscott, and how
Work in Wainscott centers on construction and manufacturing. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 57%
- Work from home 32%
- Transit, walk, or bike 10%
Life in Wainscott
The coast is about 5 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Wainscott, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Wainscott, month by month
Wainscott 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 Wainscott
The nearest airport, Westerly State, is about 36 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Bradley International, about 72 miles away.
The best schools in and around Wainscott
Schools across Wainscott average an A, better than 92% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- John M Marshall Elementary SchoolA · 69% proficient
- Sag Harbor Elementary SchoolA · 68% proficient
Top middle schools
- East Hampton Middle SchoolC− · 30% proficient
Top high schools
- East Hampton High SchoolA+ · 94% proficient
- Pierson Middle/high SchoolA · 73% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Wainscott school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Wainscott 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 Wainscott against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Wainscott
Is Wainscott a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Wainscott ranks 12,348th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on civic engagement, an educated workforce, and fast internet, and lowest on childcare costs and an overheated housing market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Wainscott expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $2,000,001. The overall cost of living runs about 95% above the national average. Set against a $130,763 median income, cost of living beats 35% of towns.
Is Wainscott safe?
Wainscott is safer than 28% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $386 per resident a year.
Compare Wainscott with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Wainscott. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Wainscott 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.
Wainscott detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Wainscott: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Wainscott: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Wainscott: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Wainscott: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Wainscott 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.