Borough Overview for Newcomers
average quiet score in Manhattan's calmest and loudest ZIP codes. Picking a borough decides almost nothing
Bestage 311 noise records, updated weekly
Almost every relocation guide starts by making you pick a borough. Our data says that is the least informative choice on the list. Among Manhattan ZIP codes with ten or more graded streets, 10022 averages 84 on our quiet score and 10040 averages 11. Both are Manhattan, both are on the subway, and the gap between them on noise complaints is larger than the gap between any two boroughs.
Still, the boroughs differ in what they are good at, and knowing which column each one wins saves you a month.
Manhattan averages 64 overall, the highest in the city, on transit access of 91 and food access of 90. It sits fourth of five on quiet at 43.
Brooklyn averages 54 and finishes second on most of what we publish. Cleanliness is its weak column, at 46, level with Staten Island at the bottom.
Queens averages 47 overall. It leads the city on cleanliness, 56 against a citywide 50, and on street trees, and it finishes last on traffic safety at 43.
The Bronx averages 46 and posts a housing-condition score of 28, the lowest anywhere by a wide margin. That score is built from HPD violation records counted per home, so in this borough the building matters more than the block.
Staten Island averages 50, wins quiet at 58 and traffic safety at 56, and finishes last on food access at 31.
We do not track rent, so this guide will not tell you what any of that costs. What it can do is stop you paying a Manhattan premium for a block that scores like the outer edge of the city.
Pro Tip: If you are choosing between two boroughs, compare the two specific ZIP codes you would actually live in. The borough averages will agree with each other more than the ZIP codes do.
Best-Rated Streets to Start Your NYC Search
Live rankings from NYC 311, HPD, DOB and NYPD crash records, updated weekly. Streets with fewer than 25 data points excluded.
| # | Street | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | QUEENS STSingle development | 97 |
| 2 | ORCHARD STSingle development | 96 |
| 3 | S END AVESingle development | 95 |
| 4 | E 72 ST | 93 |
| 5 | RED HOOK LNSingle development | 93 |
| 6 | N END AVESingle development | 93 |
| 7 | W END AVE | 92 |
| 8 | E 54 ST | 91 |
| 9 | E 69 ST | 91 |
| 10 | W 60 ST | 91 |
| 11 | EXCHANGE PLSingle development | 91 |
| 12 | W 67 ST | 90 |
| 13 | SUTTON PL S | 90 |
| 14 | SPRUCE STSingle development | 90 |
| 15 | W 12 ST | 89 |
What the Law Caps, and What It Does Not
Four money rules are worth knowing before a broker explains them to you, because three of them are law and the fourth is not.
The broker fee is the big one. The FARE Act took effect in June 2025 and is still in force as of 2026: only a broker you hired yourself can charge you a fee. If the landlord hired the listing broker, the landlord pays. A tenant fee on a landlord's listing is a FARE Act violation.
The security deposit is capped at one month's rent for residential tenancies statewide, and no last month's rent, pet deposit, key deposit or move-in fee may be stacked on top of it. Co-ops and condos are the exception.
The application fee is capped at $20, or the actual cost of the credit and background check if that is lower.
The 40x rule is the one that is not law. Most landlords want annual income of 40 times the monthly rent, so $100,000 for a $2,500 apartment and $120,000 for a $3,000 one. Because it is a screening convention rather than a statute, it moves: a guarantor service, a co-signer asked for 80 times the monthly rent, or roommates combining income all clear it.
So the legally bounded part of a move-in on a $3,000 apartment is $6,020: first month, one month deposit and the $20 application fee. Movers, furniture and a cushion sit on top and vary too much for us to put a number on.
On transit, budget from the fare rather than a monthly pass. A subway or local bus ride is $3, and OMNY stops charging once you have paid $35 in any rolling seven-day window, about twelve rides. Set it up on the phone, because MetroCards have not been sold since January 2026.
Important: Never wire money or pay a deposit before seeing an apartment in person and verifying who owns it. If someone asks for a broker fee on a listing you found yourself, that is the FARE Act violation, not a fee to haggle over.
How to Evaluate a Street Before Signing
Every graded street on this site carries nine scores. Four of them decide whether you will be happy there, and there is a threshold for each.
Read the quiet score first, because it is the one thing a lease cannot fix. It counts 311 noise complaints against the homes on the block, ranked against streets of the same type, so 50 is the middle of a block's own band. Below 50, keep looking. Only 901 graded blocks citywide clear 85 on it.
Read the traffic-safety score next. It counts injuries and deaths in NYPD collision records against the homes on the block, so it tells you how dangerous your street is to cross.
Read the housing score if the building is old. It is built from the HPD violation record on that block and it is the closest thing we publish to a warning about landlords.
Read the food-access score last. It counts restaurants rather than groceries, so a high score means dinner within a walk and nothing at all about where you buy milk.
Run all four against the exact block, not the neighborhood it sits in.
Our scores cannot tell you whether a building has an elevator, and a listing usually can. The mix is set by the block rather than the neighborhood. For each block it names, our dog-owners guide gives the number of residential buildings on the street, how many of them have elevators and how many are walk-ups. If a fifth-floor climb is a dealbreaker, or if you need a super on site, read those counts before you book the viewing.
The Six-Week Search
The mistake newcomers make is starting with listings. Listings in this city last days, so a search that begins with them is a search you run under time pressure with no standard. Build the standard first.
Weeks six and five. Set the rent ceiling, then build a block shortlist rather than a neighborhood shortlist. Pick two or three ZIP codes, open their streets, and write down the ones that clear your thresholds on quiet and traffic safety. Twenty names is plenty. Gather pay stubs, tax returns, bank statements and ID now, and line up a guarantor if the 40x math does not work.
Weeks four and three. Start viewing, and only view listings on or beside a street from your list. Stack several into one trip and be ready to apply the same day, because the good ones do not sit. The application fee is capped at $20.
Weeks two and one. Sign, pay first month and the one-month deposit, set up Con Ed and internet, book movers, and change your address with USPS, your bank and your subscriptions.
Moving week. Confirm the movers, clean the new place before the boxes arrive, and photograph or video every room before you put anything in it. That video is the evidence in any deposit dispute.
First week in. Do the move-in inspection with the super present, get the internet live, and find the nearest grocery and pharmacy.
Pro Tip: A shortlist of streets beats a shortlist of neighborhoods. When a listing appears at 9am and is gone by 2pm, the question you want already answered is whether that block was ever acceptable.
Your First Month
Two apartment purchases pay for themselves in the first summer. A fan or air conditioner is the obvious one. Blackout curtains are the one people forget, because the street lighting here is bright and our quiet score does not measure light. Your super controls maintenance and packages, so treat that relationship accordingly.
The thing worth doing in month two, once the furniture has stopped moving, is to look up the street you actually landed on and read its nine scores properly. Most people pick a first apartment on rent, commute and a good feeling in the hallway, then spend a year working out what the block is really like. The scores tell you in a minute, and more usefully they tell you what to fix: a white-noise machine if the quiet score is the problem, a different crossing if the traffic-safety score is, a call to 311 and a look at the HPD record if it is the building.
Every number on this site is a record of what people reported, not a measurement of how a street feels. A block with a low quiet score is a block whose neighbors called 311. It is the best signal available, and it is not a substitute for standing on the block at ten at night.