Massapequa Park, Hicksville among best places to live, U.S. News & World Report says
Massapequa Park was ranked the top community in New York State and was among the top 250 places to live nationwide, according to U.S. News & World Report. Credit: Newsday/Alejandra Villa Loarca
Of the four New York State communities on U.S. News & World Report’s "Best Places to Live" list, half are on Long Island, U.S. News' Consumer Lending Analyst, Erika Giovanetti confirmed.
The village of Massapequa Park ranked first in New York and 140th nationally, according to the list. The hamlet of Hicksville, where Billy Joel attended high school in the 1960s, ranked third in New York and 156th nationally.
"While that doesn’t sound super impressive on its own, considering that we have more than 850 cities in our analysis, anything that makes the top 250 is considered to be a great place to live that has really earned its spot-on our list," Giovanetti said.
Lindenhurst, which ranked 474th nationally, did not make the countrywide list of best places to live, but ranked 10th among New York State communities only. The New York City boroughs did not make the national list, Giovanetti noted; the other two New York communities that placed are upstate.
As a realtor who lives and works in Massapequa Park, Anthony Napolitano said he was proud to see that the area made the list.
"You have that community feel — it’s got that old charm to it," Napolitano said. "You walk into Arlo Drug Store, they know who you are ... the bakery, they know who you are."
Napolitano described the village as a "little melting pot area," where there are parks, parades and neighborhood camaraderie.
"Everyone looks out for each other," he said. "You see some kid fall, you go up, you pick him up, you brush him off and you help him out. That’s the feel that you get here."
In Hicksville, said Douglas Elliman agent Doris Kason, local restaurants represent a wide variety of cultural backgrounds. Largely, she said, the area’s appeal is its location.
"The proximity is perfect to go absolutely anywhere to all the things that are amazing about living on Long Island," Kason said. "Hicksville is basically smack right in the middle of Long Island."
Two Long Island Rail Road lines pass through Hicksville and offer access to Penn and Grand Central Madison stations, making the area a convenient location for city commuters, she said.
"Sometimes there, it’s more convenient to live in Hicksville than towns that are actually geographically a little closer to the city because we have the two lines," Kason said. "We have trains that actually start off in Hicksville, so it’s easy to get a seat."
In past years, U.S. News & World Report evaluated 150 locations. This year, the company expanded the scope of its analysis.
"We just want to give consumers more data to analyze, more places to look at and to just be able to find something that truly works for them," she said. "Although my hometown doesn’t make the ‘Best Places to Live’ list, doesn’t mean that I don’t love living here."
U.S. News & World Report evaluates each location in the categories of desirability, value, quality of life, job market conditions and net migration. The company weights each category based on an annual consumer survey that asks respondents to rank the categories in order of importance, Giovanetti said. Quality of life currently ranks first, while net migration represents just 2% of the total weight, she added.
Each category has a set of subcategories. Desirability, for example, includes weather, access to restaurants and retail establishments per capita, commute and rates of violent and property crime. The quality-of-life category includes college readiness, determined using local school rankings.
On a scale of 1 to 10, Massapequa Park’s overall score was 6.1; Hicksville scored a 6. There is no utopian city, Giovanetti said: countrywide, the highest score was 7.0 and the lowest was 2.3.
"No cities are perfect, none of them are earning a perfect 10, or even an 8 or 9," Giovanetti said. "A lot of these cities that are in the middle to high end of our ‘Best Places to Live’ list have very similar scores, and it’s little things that set them apart."
Massapequa Park had high desirability scores, low crime rates and had a 98th-percentile income index score, Giovanetti said. The area also fell within the top 10% of the health index, which is based on U.S. News & World Report’s hospital rankings.
Hicksville scored well on the income index, desirability and for culture and leisure — the category that includes restaurants and retail — Giovanetti said.
"Sometimes what I find is, the top places on the list might not be the most exciting for someone like me, a young 30-something" said Giovanetti, who is based in Richmond, Virginia. "Generally for families, I find that the top places to live do at least offer a good balance of multiple factors."
Arielle Dollinger joined Newsday as a staff reporter in 2022. Previously, she covered local and national news as a freelancer for The New York Times, Newsday and other outlets.
