A new ranking puts a quiet waterfront village at the top of New York’s price chart, and the totals for essentials alone are eye-watering. Based on a uniform basket—mortgage, groceries, utilities, healthcare, transportation—the study shows costs surging most in Long Island suburbs. Sands Point leads the state, while Southampton and Montauk also place high. Westchester appears too, though less often, underscoring how coastal addresses dominate this snapshot of everyday budgets.
Why Long Island dominates New York’s cost map
Sands Point leads by a wide margin: necessities total $17,496 per month and more than $209,000 annually, driven mostly by a mortgage near $14,800 on a roughly $3 million home. Old Westbury follows with five-figure essentials and a seven-figure average value that shapes affordability.
Because analysts priced only essentials, totals exclude discretionary spending, which would widen gaps further. Still, the numbers already surpass expectations. Larchmont appears in eighth, behind Southampton and Montauk, showing how ocean-facing addresses carry premium utility, insurance, and transport costs alongside housing on Long Island.
Fifteen of the top twenty sit in Nassau and Suffolk, confirming a structural pattern: premium inventory, limited supply, and high incomes converge. The study uses current mortgage costs for consistency, so cash buyers or longtime owners face different realities, even if market prices still frame decisions.
How the study calculates necessity budgets
Researchers combined average 2025 home values with typical mortgage payments, then added grocery, utility, healthcare, and transportation outlays to reflect everyday life, rather than rare luxuries. The approach isolates local price levels and makes cross-town comparisons clearer for families weighing moves.
Using the American Community Survey and the Bureau of Labor Statistics grounds the model in observed behavior. The 2023 Consumer Expenditure Survey refines category weights, so housing doesn’t drown the picture. This balance is helpful while households compare neighborhoods and plan timelines on Long Island and beyond.
Every model has limits. Commute distance, home age, and insurance nuances vary. Energy efficiency, telework, and seasonality also shift real bills at the margins. Even so, when essentials cross five figures, small behavioral tweaks cannot fully offset the affordability pressure captured by this ranking.
20 Most Expensive Places To Live in New York
New York has always been associated with a high cost of living, but certain areas spend substantially more money on necessities than others. There are 13 cities where residents pay at least $10,000 on necessities monthly, according to a new study from GOBankingRates.
GOBankingRates found the most expensive places to live in New York by isolating the metros with the highest 2025 home values and total populations over 2,500. Data analyzed for each qualifying city included their 2025 average home value, monthly mortgage payments and monthly and annual costs for groceries, utilities, healthcare and transportation. The mortgage payments were combined with grocery, utility, healthcare and transportation costs to determine the monthly and annual necessity costs of each city.
See the 20 most expensive places to live in New York, ranked by highest to lowest annual necessity costs. After, check out Florida’s 25 most expensive cities to live in.
Sands Point
- Costs of just necessities (annually): $209,951
- Costs of just necessities (monthly): $17,496
- 2025 average home value: $2,986,180
- Monthly mortgage payment: $14,787
Old Westbury
- Costs of just necessities (annually): $190,670
- Costs of just necessities (monthly): $15,889
- 2025 average home value: $2,684,811
- Monthly mortgage payment: $13,295
Muttontown
- Costs of just necessities (annually): $160,370
- Costs of just necessities (monthly): $13,364
- 2025 average home value: $2,160,010
- Monthly mortgage payment: $10,696
Lloyd Harbor
- Costs of just necessities (annually): $159,429
- Costs of just necessities (monthly): $13,286
- 2025 average home value: $2,203,390
- Monthly mortgage payment: $10,911
Manhasset
- Costs of just necessities (annually): $155,534
- Costs of just necessities (monthly): $12,961
- 2025 average home value: $2,084,822
- Monthly mortgage payment: $10,324
Southampton
- Costs of just necessities (annually): $154,626
- Costs of just necessities (monthly): $12,885
- 2025 average home value: $2,150,995
- Monthly mortgage payment: $10,651
Montauk
- Costs of just necessities (annually): $146,703
- Costs of just necessities (monthly): $12,225
- 2025 average home value: $2,024,410
- Monthly mortgage payment: $10,024
Larchmont
- Costs of just necessities (annually): $131,800
- Costs of just necessities (monthly): $10,983
- 2025 average home value: $1,710,271
- Monthly mortgage payment: $8,469
Cold Spring Harbor
- Costs of just necessities (annually): $127,312
- Costs of just necessities (monthly): $10,609
- 2025 average home value: $1,665,099
- Monthly mortgage payment: $8,245
Roslyn
- Costs of just necessities (annually): $126,942
- Costs of just necessities (monthly): $10,579
- 2025 average home value: $1,608,932
- Monthly mortgage payment: $7,967
Bronxville
- Costs of just necessities (annually): $125,516
- Costs of just necessities (monthly): $10,460
- 2025 average home value: $1,616,827
- Monthly mortgage payment: $8,006
Armonk
- Costs of just necessities (annually): $124,222
- Costs of just necessities (monthly): $10,352
- 2025 average home value: $1,606,764
- Monthly mortgage payment: $7,956
Great Neck
- Costs of just necessities (annually): $121,748
- Costs of just necessities (monthly): $10,146
- 2025 average home value: $1,518,298
- Monthly mortgage payment: $7,518
Roslyn Heights
- Costs of just necessities (annually): $111,914
- Costs of just necessities (monthly): $9,326
- 2025 average home value: $1,344,454
- Monthly mortgage payment: $6,657
Chappaqua
- Costs of just necessities (annually): $111,594
- Costs of just necessities (monthly): $9,299
- 2025 average home value: $1,393,076
- Monthly mortgage payment: $6,898
East Williston
- Costs of just necessities (annually): $111,274
- Costs of just necessities (monthly): $9,273
- 2025 average home value: $1,348,494
- Monthly mortgage payment: $6,677
Westhampton
- Costs of just necessities (annually): $108,662
- Costs of just necessities (monthly): $9,055
- 2025 average home value: $1,373,944
- Monthly mortgage payment: $6,803
Glen Head
- Costs of just necessities (annually): $108,155
- Costs of just necessities (monthly): $9,013
- 2025 average home value: $1,293,022
- Monthly mortgage payment: $6,403
Pelham
- Costs of just necessities (annually): $108,027
- Costs of just necessities (monthly): $9,002
- 2025 average home value: $1,321,548
- Monthly mortgage payment: $6,544
Garden City
- Costs of just necessities (annually): $107,495
- Costs of just necessities (monthly): $8,958
- 2025 average home value: $1,278,953
- Monthly mortgage payment: $6,333
Why the ranking reshapes choices for New York households today
The figures set a clear baseline for households choosing among coastal villages and commuter hubs. Because necessity costs reach five figures in many places, budgets hinge on housing and routine bills, with the concentration strongest on Long Island. Westchester still features prominently. Taken together, the ranking captures how location drives essentials, not extras, across sought-after New York communities.
