Best Places to Live NYC Area: Long Island Dominates

Looking to find the best places to live in the New York City area? Your best bet may be looking into Long Island, according to one site's ranking.

On the list of Niche's top 25 places to live in the metropolitan area, 14 of the locations can be found in Nassau County, with the top spot going to Great Neck Gardens. The small, affluent hamlet was given A+ marks for schools and families, and an A in nightlife. Housing earned a grade of B+, while the only category that seemingly needed improvement was diversity, which earned a B-.

Right behind was the neighboring Great Neck Plaza — in fact, each of the top five spots on Niche's rankings went to spots in Nassau County.

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The hamlets of Herricks and Syosset were 3rd and 4th, respectively, while the village of Kensington took the fifth spot. Kensington was also rated as the best place to raise a family in New York, according to Niche. Syosset was rated the second-best place to raise a family in New York, Niche found.

Based on those rankings, it's not a surprise the website rated Nassau as the best county in the state. Tompkins County, Albany County and Monroe County also were toward the top of the list.

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The best place to live that is not located in Nassau County, according to Niche, was New Jersey's Ho-Ho-Kus. The Bergen County town was rated as the best suburb in the state, earning A grades in each of the sites categories with the exception of diversity, where it scored a B-. The other top suburbs for New Jersey were Ridgewood and River Edge, both of which are also in Bergen County.

Long Island's Lake Success was rated 7th, just ahead of the top entry from Westchester County. The hamlet of Hartsdale got A or A- marks in each category except for nightlife, where Niche gave it a B+.

Manhattan was the only part of NYC to make the list, coming in at No. 14. The city received A+ grades for diversity, nightlife and being good for families, and a B+ for public schools — but for obvious reasons scored quite low on housing, in which it got just a C-, according to Niche.

Two neighborhoods in Manhattan also made the list: Chelsea, at 21st, and Morningside Heights, at 24th.

Here's a full list of the top 25 places to live in the New York City area: