Everything else equal, we can all agree that living in a cheaper place is better than living in a more expensive place.
I’d much rather pay $500/mo in rent than $1,000. And I’d rather pay $2 for coffee than $5.
And while every neighborhood in New York City might be more expensive than living in rural New York, there are certain neighborhoods that are definitely cheaper.
What exactly are those New York City neighborhoods where your dollar goes a little further — you can get that one bedroom instead of the studio?
Instead of relying on public opinion and speculation, we wanted to get the facts straight and determine which neighborhoods in New York City are the cheapest using Saturday Night Science.
98 cost of living index
125 cost of living index
124 cost of living index
126 cost of living index
121 cost of living index
129 cost of living index
128 cost of living index
134 cost of living index
140 cost of living index
139 cost of living index
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is New York’s statewide median.
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: How we determined the cheapest New York City hoods in 2026
To rank the cheapest places to live in New York City, we had to determine what criteria define “cheap” and then apply Saturday Night Science.
Using Census and extrapolated BLS data, we arrived at the following set of criteria:
- Overall Cost Of Living
- Rent To Income Ratio
- Median Home Value To Income Ratio
We then ranked each neighborhood with scores from 1 to 123 in each category, where 1 was the cheapest.
Next, we averaged the rankings for each neighborhood to create a cheap neighborhood index.
And finally, we crowned the neighborhood with the lowest cheapest neighborhood index, the “Cheapest City Neighborhood In New York City.” We’re lookin’ at you, Howland Hook.
We updated this article for 2026. Skip to the end to see the list of all the neighborhoods in the city, from cheapest to most expensive.
The full plate
Detailed list of the cheapest neighborhoods to live in New York City for 2026
Click any column to sort. Search by neighborhood name.
| Rank | Neighborhood | Cost Of Living Index |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Howland Hook | 98 |
| 2 | Ardon Heights | 125 |
| 3 | The Rockaways | 124 |
| 4 | Bloomfield-Chelsea-Travis | 126 |
| 5 | Mariners Harbor | 121 |
| 6 | Tottensville | 129 |
| 7 | Steinway | 128 |
| 8 | Ettingville | 134 |
| 9 | Spuyten Duyvil | 140 |
| 10 | Annandale | 139 |
| 11 | Westerleigh-Castleton | 136 |
| 12 | South Beach | 145 |
| 13 | Woodlawn-Nordwood | 121 |
| 14 | Riverdale | 146 |
| 15 | Saintalbans | 139 |
| 16 | Richmondtown | 141 |
| 17 | Port Richmond | 134 |
| 18 | Kings Bridge | 110 |
| 19 | Eastchester | 146 |
| 20 | Laurelton | 154 |
| 21 | Baychester | 149 |
| 22 | Douglastown-Little Neck | 151 |
| 23 | Nkew Gardens | 138 |
| 24 | Great Kills | 156 |
| 25 | Union Port | 125 |
| 26 | North Sutton Area | 188 |
| 27 | Parkchester | 128 |
| 28 | Oakwood | 149 |
| 29 | City Island | 166 |
| 30 | Queens Village | 154 |
| 31 | Charlestown-Richmond Valley | 151 |
| 32 | Bedford Park | 116 |
| 33 | Clearview | 157 |
| 34 | Todt Hill | 184 |
| 35 | Rosebank | 151 |
| 36 | Sunny Side | 144 |
| 37 | Williams Bridge | 122 |
| 38 | Woodrow | 159 |
| 39 | Midland Beach | 155 |
| 40 | Wakefield-Williamsbridge | 132 |
| 41 | New Brighton | 147 |
| 42 | Yorkville | 131 |
| 43 | Clifton | 143 |
| 44 | Forest Hills | 166 |
| 45 | Country Club | 166 |
| 46 | Gramercy | 201 |
| 47 | Astoria-Long Island City | 141 |
| 48 | Huguenot | 176 |
| 49 | Rossville | 153 |
| 50 | Springfield Gardens | 159 |
| 51 | Morris Park | 152 |
| 52 | Woodhaven-Richmond Hill | 149 |
| 53 | Prince’s Bay | 173 |
| 54 | Inwood | 148 |
| 55 | Throggs Neck | 158 |
| 56 | Gravesend-Sheepshead Bay | 156 |
| 57 | Canarsie | 164 |
| 58 | Glendale | 173 |
| 59 | Financial District | 250 |
| 60 | East Brooklyn | 134 |
| 60 | Jamaica | 154 |
| 62 | Jackson Heights | 155 |
| 63 | Greenwich Village | 248 |
| 64 | Battery Park | 292 |
| 64 | Murray Hill | 223 |
| 66 | Middle Village | 183 |
| 67 | West Village | 248 |
| 68 | Tribeca | 324 |
| 69 | Upper East Side | 266 |
| 70 | Queensboro Hill | 155 |
| 71 | Chelsea | 229 |
| 72 | East Village | 194 |
| 73 | Fort Green | 173 |
| 74 | Carnegie Hill | 327 |
| 75 | Park Slope | 282 |
| 76 | Hunts Point | 134 |
| 77 | Bedford-Stuyvesant | 148 |
| 78 | Bay Ridge | 198 |
| 79 | Maspeth | 179 |
| 80 | Downtown | 231 |
| 81 | Greenwood | 210 |
| 81 | Soundview | 147 |
| 81 | Whitestone | 196 |
| 81 | Utopia | 211 |
| 85 | Cobble Hill | 301 |
| 85 | Ridgewood | 185 |
| 87 | Woodside | 172 |
| 87 | Carroll Gardens | 302 |
| 89 | Mapleton-Flatlands | 165 |
| 90 | Washington Heights | 162 |
| 91 | Soho | 296 |
| 92 | Upper West Side | 279 |
| 92 | Morningside Heights | 219 |
| 94 | Tremont | 146 |
| 95 | Midtown | 274 |
| 96 | Boerum Hill | 278 |
| 97 | Flatbush | 189 |
| 98 | Brownsville | 147 |
| 99 | Morris Heights | 149 |
| 100 | Central Park | 297 |
Source: U.S. Census ACS 2020-2024. All 123 New York City neighborhoods.
Summary
Summary: Lowest cost places to live in New York City
If you’re measuring the neighborhoods in New York City where prices are low, and it’s cheap to live, this is an accurate list.
The most affordable neighborhoods in New York City are Howland Hook, Ardon Heights, The Rockaways, Bloomfield-Chelsea-Travis, Mariners Harbor, Tottensville, Steinway, Ettingville, Spuyten Duyvil, and Annandale.
As mentioned earlier, the neighborhoods in New York City aren’t all cheap. Borough Park takes the title of the most expensive neighborhood to live in New York City.
We ranked the neighborhoods from cheapest to most expensive in the chart below. Not sold on New York? Take the two-minute Find Your Place quiz and see which state actually fits you.
Questions and answers
Cheapest Neighborhoods In New York City FAQs
What is the cheapest neighborhood in New York City?
Howland Hook is the cheapest neighborhood in New York City for 2026. It posts the best combination of overall cost of living, rent against income, and home prices against income. Ardon Heights and The Rockaways are next.
What are the cheapest neighborhoods in New York City?
The cheapest neighborhoods in New York City are Howland Hook, Ardon Heights, The Rockaways, Bloomfield-Chelsea-Travis, Mariners Harbor, Tottensville, Steinway, Ettingville, Spuyten Duyvil, and Annandale. We ranked all 123 neighborhoods in the city.
How do you decide which neighborhoods are cheapest?
Three measures: an overall cost of living index, rent-to-income, and home-value-to-income, all from Census tract data. Scoring costs against local incomes keeps one luxury tower from skewing the math.
Is a cheap neighborhood a bad neighborhood?
Not necessarily — this ranking measures what things cost relative to income, nothing else. Check our safest neighborhoods in New York City ranking before you sign a lease, because cheap and safe are separate questions.
What is the most expensive neighborhood in New York City?
Borough Park lands at the expensive end of the 123 neighborhoods we scored. If your budget disagrees with it, the rest of the list runs cheaper.
