73fit
Upper East Side
$3K median rent
Doorman buildings, school-district hunting, and a museum wall along the park. The east 80s are quieter than the listings imply.
Family streetsWalk 73Safety 67
New York/Upper West Side
72fit
Upper West Side
Official neighborhood: Upper West Side (Lincoln Square, Central, Manhattan Valley)
Data vintage. ACS 2024 5-year · NYPD Oct 2025 – Jun 2026 · OSM Sep 2026 · updated Sep 2026
Pre-war co-ops, the park, and a grocery on every other corner. Family default for people who still want a subway.
uwsupper westlincoln squaremanhattan valley
Best in New York for familiesWalkable New YorkUnder $2,500 rent
Why this score
Safety
52
279 violent · 2401 property · 13.5 per 1k (Oct 2025 – Jun 2026)+2 vs city set
Schools
87
Rating 8.4 / 10 nearby+40 vs city set
Walk
74
OSM: 99 groceries · 110 cafes · 265 transit · 120 parks+34 vs city set
Cost
83
$2,660 ACS median vs your rent budget-3 vs city set
Vibe
59
OSM: 110 cafes · 408 restaurants · 51 bars · 120 parks+22 vs city set
Commute to work
From Upper West Side, a typical weekday is 12 min to Midtown, 30 min to FiDi, 32 min to Downtown Brooklyn. Not live traffic.
Midtown is the fastest of these three job centers from here.
Midtown
12 min
Times Square, Hudson Yards · -15 min vs the city-set median · fastest of these three
FiDi
30 min
Wall Street, ferries · +1 min vs the city-set median
Downtown Brooklyn
32 min
BAM, Dumbo, Borough Hall · +10 min vs the city-set median
Minutes are baked from neighborhood geography to three job centers — not Google, not this hour’s traffic.
Cost of living
The ACS median rent is $2,660 — every occupied rental mixed together, not the 1-bed in the window.
That is 21% of median household income — under the 30% HUD line. A household at this area’s median income ($153K) could “afford” about $3,817 a month at 30% of pay.
65% of households rent. Median home value is $1,352,804.
ACS median rent
$2,660
30% income budget
$3,817
Rent / income
21%
Median home
$1,352,804
Rent since 2014
ACS 5-year median gross rent for New York city. Up 48% since 2014. Upper West Side is 46% above the 2024 city median.
Overlapping 5-year ACS windows (B25064), not asking rent. Census does not publish a rent series for each official neighborhood, so the line is the city place. The dashed mark is this area’s ACS 2024 median.
HUD treats 30% of income as the cost-burden line. We do not split ACS rent into 1-bed vs 2-bed. Method.
Within a walk
Within a short walk of this official neighborhood: 99 groceries, 110 cafes, 120 parks, and 265 transit stops.
Daily errands and coffee are realistic on foot. Parks are close — 120 mapped parks in that radius. Transit is dense (265 stops or stations).
110 cafes and 408 restaurants make this one of the busier food pockets in the New York set.
OpenStreetMap, 800 meters. Not a Walk Score license. More groceries than 17 of the other 21 areas in this city.
Population
198,830
Median age
43.5
Median income
$153K
Renters
65%
Bachelor+
77%
Violent / 1k
1.4
Property / 1k
12.1
ACS 2024 5-year (2020-2024) · 26 census tracts · NYPD Oct 2025 – Jun 2026 · OSM 2026-09-01
Family streetsWaterfront
Crime is NYPD Part I reports per 1,000 ACS residents — not a judgment of who lives here. Home and rent figures are ACS medians, not live MLS. Read the method.
On the ground
What it is like to live here, beyond the scores.
Pre-war co-ops, a grocery on every other corner, Central Park on one side and Riverside on the other. Zillow’s 2025 guide calls the vibe laid-back and neighborhood-oriented, which is the UWS’s whole personality: families, musicians, people who like a bookstore. Subways are the 1/2/3 and B/C — you will not need a car and you should not want one.
It is expensive in a quiet way. Nightlife is Amsterdam and Columbus, not a scene. Weight family, schools, and walk. The UES is the east-park twin with a different museum wall and a different demographic joke. Pick the park you want to run.
Compiled from Zillow neighborhood guides, 5280 Magazine, Chicago and San Francisco resident guides, Mpls With Love, Eastside LA reporting, Seattle Times coverage, Boston planning-neighborhood writing, and local writing, 2025–2026. Editorial — not part of the fit score.
Reported here lately
City 311 service requests in this official unit, last 14 days. This is what neighbors filed with the city — not a chat thread, and not part of the fit score.
2,166 reports
- Illegal Parking192
- Noise - Street/Sidewalk140
- Homeless Person Assistance125
- Noise - Residential113
- UNSANITARY CONDITION113
- Curb Condition
- Taxi
- Noise - Commercial
- Noise - Street/Sidewalk
- Noise - Park
NYC 311 from 2020–present, last 14 days, mapped to 2020 NTAs. No addresses stored. Method.
On Reddit
Public posts from r/nyc that mention this neighborhood. Not Nextdoor, not people on this block, and not part of the fit score.
In r/nyc lately: a few posts that name Upper West Side.
- Upper West Side Sweetgreen Closed Due to Cockroaches
r/nyc · Aug 27 · 279 upvotes · 52 comments
- This is the Fulton Fish Market in 1968. The photo was taken by a hippie artist from the Upper West Side.
r/nyc · Aug 17 · 93 upvotes · 4 comments
- Could bathhouses be making a comback? When the Upper West Side Had the Most Fabulous Basement in the City
r/nyc · Aug 31 · 42 upvotes · 17 comments
The line above is a reading of the titles, not a verdict. Up to 3 links, last 90 days, snapshot 2026-09-01. Method.
Common questions
Straight answers from the numbers on this page.
Is Upper West Side safe?
Upper West Side is middle of the pack for Part I here (safety 52 vs city 50). NYPD logged 1.4 violent and 12.1 property incidents per 1,000 residents — 13.5 combined. Visitors count in those numbers. This is not a judgment of who lives here.
What is rent in Upper West Side?
ACS median rent is $2,660 — studios through large apartments mixed together. About 65% of households rent. Median home value is $1,352,804. Survey medians, not a listing you can message tonight.
Is Upper West Side walkable?
Walk is 74 here vs 40 for the New York set — a grocery run and a coffee on foot are realistic. Inside 800 meters: 99 groceries, 110 cafes, 265 transit stops, 120 parks. Not a Walk Score license.
Is Upper West Side good for families?
The scores lean family relative to this city set. Nearby school rating is 8.4 / 10. Median age is 43.5. That rating is not your assigned campus.
How long is the commute from Upper West Side?
12 typical weekday minutes to Midtown. Not the app on your phone this hour. Other job centers are further down this page.
How many people live in Upper West Side?
About 198,830 people. Median income $153K. 77% have a bachelor's or higher.
What neighborhoods are next to Upper West Side?
Hell's Kitchen, Upper East Side, Harlem sit closest on this map. If you are choosing between two official neighborhoods, start with Upper West Side vs Hell's Kitchen.
Next door
Adjacent on the map, ranked with your weights.
Upper West Side vs Hell's KitchenUpper West Side vs Upper East SideUpper West Side vs Harlem
43fit
Chelsea
$3K median rent
Galleries, the High Line, and a waterfront that turned into towers. The gayborhood label stuck; the warehouses did not.
NightlifePlannedWaterfrontWalk 30Safety 19
38fit
Harlem
$2K median rent
Brownstones, the Apollo, and a park at the north end of the island. Not a starter-kit neighborhood — the original one.
Family streetsWalk 28Safety 38
36fit
Long Island City
$3K median rent
Waterfront towers, the 7 train, and a skyline that faces Manhattan. New-build default for people priced out of the island.
PlannedWaterfrontWalk 22Safety 33
29fit
Hell's Kitchen
$3K median rent
Ninth Avenue restaurants, Port Authority in earshot, and Hudson Yards glass at the south edge. Nightlife that still has walk-ups.
NightlifeWalk 5Safety 29