4 hours ago
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Massapequa Park, LI residents are enjoying some positive vibes, especially when it comes to living there.
The US News & World Report’s new 2025-2026 list of the best places to live in America ranked Massapequa Park at the top of the list for the Empire State, although the Nassau County village is still leagues away from the country’s No. 1 spot, which is a plane ride away.
The close-knit village on the South Shore of Long Island enjoys a strong public school system, nearby beach access and a convenient commute to New York City for those heading to the office.
The list evaluated a total of 850 cities and towns for affordability, job prospects, crime rates and other quality of life indicators — and a public survey gave weight to these criteria to determine the top 250 spots.
While Massapequa Park ranked first in the Empire State, it only ranked 140th on the list of 250 singled-out cities. (New York City, meanwhile, performed far, far worse. The Big Apple ranked 797 out of the 850 metros surveyed.)
“It’s great, I’m here 52 years, came from the city in Maspeth, moved here. People are great, town is great, food is great. What can I say, I love it,” Rose Polis, of Massapequa Park, told News 12.
New Yorkers are willing to shell out for the quintessential suburban Long Island experience offered by the village. The median Massapequa Park home sells for $746,500, according to Realtor.com. That’s more than twice the statewide median sale price in 2024, New York City excluded.
The reputation of Massapequa Park took a hit in 2023, however, when one of its 17,0000 residents, Rex Heuermann, became the prime suspect in the grisly Gilgo Beach serial killings. Heurmann’s arrest rocked the suburban community at the time.
Local residents are relishing in the good news — Long Island hardly made an appearance on last year’s rankings, in which Buffalo led the New York pack. The mayor of Massapequa Park, Danny Pearl, shared news of the recent US News & World Report distinction on Facebook to largely enthusiastic responses.
“We knew it all along!” wrote one Facebook user.
“I’m so proud to live here,” commented another. “It’s beautiful.”
Others were less enthused.
“Please don’t broadcast this,” another user wrote. “We don’t want all the hipsters moving here from the city and getting our property values jacked.”
The list’s top-most distinction went to Johns Creek, Georgia.
The suburban city 25 miles from downtown Atlanta boasts a high quality of life thanks to a strong job market and high desirability scores. Indeed, the years since COVID have seen a number of residents from across the nation head to Atlanta and its surroundings to start new lives.
Skylar Topper, an Atlanta real estate agent and Johns Creek native, told US News & World Report that the city is “very idyllic.”
“Growing up here, we kind of called it like a little bit of a bubble because it’s such a good place to live,” Topper said. “It’s always been a pretty desirable area.”
Carmel, Indiana, which claims the largest number of roundabouts in the country (150 in total) snagged second place.
Not a single metro in the Northeast breached the list’s top 10 ranking, which was dominated by cities in Indiana, Texas and North Carolina.
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