Best PlacesYonkers, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Yonkers, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Distance to the water drives a lot of the difference between one part and the next. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Yonkers ranks 188th of 445 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 12 minutes away. Its strengths are fast internet and big-city access. The cost shows up in noise, long commutes, and taxes.
The best neighborhoods in Yonkers
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.
The best areas in Yonkers
The parts of Yonkers, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the city.
Lincoln Park & Woodlawn
Local pay stretches further, incomes run higher, and more residents vote.
Southeast Yonkers
More adults hold degrees, though fewer households have young kids.
Homefield & Nepera Park
Tree cover is thicker, though streets are more car-dependent.
Colonial Heights & Cedar Knolls
Health care is easier to reach, though biking is worse.
Northwest Yonkers
It is quieter and health outcomes score higher.
Bryn Mawr
Scores close to Northwest Yonkers, except that crime runs higher here.
Lawrence Park
Fewer homes sit empty, though homes cost more.
Ludlow & Park Hills
Schools score higher.
Getty Square & Downtown Yonkers
Yonkers shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 4% of the country and others in the top 3%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Yonkers' strengths and weaknesses
Yonkers lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Fast internet is the standout, in the top 3% of cities. Big-city access and transit follow.
The one real hole is noise, near the bottom of the country. Long commutes and taxes also cost it ground. That varies block to block rather than evenly, and the map below shows where.
Where Yonkers ranks high
- Internet speedBetter than 97% of cities
- Big-city accessBetter than 96% of cities
- TransitBetter than 96% of cities
- WalkabilityBetter than 94% of cities
- School gradeB, better than 85% of cities
Where Yonkers ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 2% of cities
- Short commute35.4 minutes each way, better than only 3% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 5% of cities
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 7% of cities
- Nice weatherabout 62 pleasant days a year, better than only 9% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Yonkers
A household needs to earn about $145,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Yonkers home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $91,518, 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 Yonkers' effective rate of 1.56%, 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 Yonkers
Yonkers's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Yonkers.
Who works in Yonkers, and how
Work in Yonkers centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 59%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 30%
Life in Yonkers
Yonkers has more restaurants and bars per resident than 69% of cities and more parkland per resident than 80% of cities. The coast is about 12 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Yonkers and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Yonkers, month by month
Yonkers sees roughly 62 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 44, with lows near 26. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 44° | 34° | 26° |
| April | 65° | 53° | 42° |
| July | 90° | 79° | 69° |
| October | 71° | 59° | 48° |
Flying in and out of Yonkers
Laguardia sits about 11 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 Yonkers
Schools across Yonkers average a B, better than 85% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Seely Place SchoolA+ · 93% proficient
- Pearls Hawthorne SchoolA+ · 82% proficient
- Ps 29A+ · 75% proficient
Top middle schools
- Bell AcademyA+ · 78% proficient
- Farragut Middle SchoolA+ · 76% proficient
- Cross Hill AcademyD · 23% proficient
Top high schools
- Eastchester Senior High SchoolA+ · 98% proficient
- Hastings High SchoolA+ · 98% proficient
- Saunders Trades & Technical High SchoolA+ · 93% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Yonkers school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Yonkers 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 Yonkers against the other 444 cities.
Who Yonkers suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 11% already work from home.
Retirees
Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.
Common questions about living in Yonkers
Is Yonkers a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Yonkers ranks 188th of 445 cities. It scores highest on fast internet, big-city access, and transit, and lowest on noise and long commutes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Yonkers expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $503,085. The overall cost of living runs about 11% above the national average. Set against a $91,518 median income, cost of living beats 33% of cities.
Is Yonkers safe?
Yes, Yonkers is safer than 62% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $354 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Yonkers?
July highs average about 90 degrees, and January highs near 44 with lows near 26. That works out to about 62 pleasant days a year, more than 9% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Yonkers?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Lincoln Park & Woodlawn, Southeast Yonkers, and Homefield & Nepera Park. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Yonkers good for families?
Schools beat 85% of cities, crime safety beats 62%, and childcare runs $1,476 a month.
Is Yonkers good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 33% of cities, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 97% of cities. About 11% of workers already work from home.
Compare Yonkers with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Yonkers. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Yonkers 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.
Yonkers detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Yonkers: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Yonkers: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Yonkers: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Yonkers: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Yonkers 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.