Living in Sea Cliff, NY: Taxes, Schools, Commute, Homes

Sea Cliff packs a 120-foot bluff, a Victorian housing stock and its own beach into one square mile of Nassau County’s North Shore. This page lays out the numbers a buyer or renter needs first: who lives here, what homes cost, how the tax bills work, which schools serve the village and how the train gets you out. It sits among the other North Shore towns, and its next-door neighbor is Glen Head.

Is Sea Cliff wealthy? Income, home values and rents

Sea Cliff’s median household income is $193,590 in the Census Bureau’s ACS 2020–2024 5-year estimates, in 2024 inflation-adjusted dollars. Median family income is $211,000 for the same survey years. The median value of an owner-occupied home is $986,900 in the ACS 2020–2024 5-year profile, with a margin of error of $189,040.

The village is mostly owner-occupied. Of 1,769 occupied housing units in ACS 2020–2024 5-year, 1,367 are owned and 402 are rented. Median gross rent is $2,315 a month, with a margin of error of $283 (ACS 2020–2024 5-year). Population is 5,033 in the same survey and was 5,062 at the 2020 census.

Housing stock and historic rules

The median home in Sea Cliff was built in 1938 (ACS 2020–2024 5-year). Many of the older houses are Victorians, built as summer homes during the village’s late nineteenth century resort era. Several buildings, mostly Victorian houses, are on the National Register of Historic Places. The group ranks among the best collections of late Victorian architecture in Nassau County.

Age brings rules. The village code has an Architectural Design Review chapter at sections 38-1 to 38-10 and a Landmark Preservation chapter at sections 80-101 to 80-1501. The Board of Architectural Review meets on the first and third Tuesday of each month at 6:45 pm, a schedule that began June 18, 2024. Read both chapters in the village code on eCode360 before you plan exterior work on an older house.

How property taxes work in Sea Cliff

The village mails one tax bill a year, with the first half due June 1 and the second half due December 1. That bill covers only the village share: only 12.5% of a resident’s total property taxes go to the Village of Sea Cliff. The rest goes to other bodies. The Town of Oyster Bay Receiver of Taxes collects State, County, Town, special district and school district taxes and bills more than 100,000 parcels.

On the village side, the 2025-26 residential tax rate was $3.1469 per $1,000, set with a $7.6 million budget. The 2026-27 village rate is not in the sources checked on Oct 20, 2026, so the 2025-26 figure is the latest here. The village’s worked example uses a $929,000 median-priced home, valued on sales between 06/01/2020 and 05/31/2022, and puts the village tax at $3,075 a year. Because the village share is 12.5% of the total bill, $3,075 ÷ 0.125 = $24,600 a year in total property taxes for that home. The example predates the 2025-26 rate, so read $24,600 as an illustration, not a current bill.

The Town of Oyster Bay’s Receiver of Taxes splits each tax dollar into 67 cents for schools, 20 cents for Nassau County and special districts and 13 cents for the Town. That split and the village’s 12.5% come from separate sources and are not additive. New owners register for the STAR credit with the NYS Department of Taxation and Finance as soon as the home becomes their primary residence. After registering, they receive the Basic or Enhanced STAR credit, depending on what they qualify for. The program can save homeowners hundreds of dollars each year. For county-wide mechanics, see Nassau County property taxes.

Schools: North Shore Central School District

Sea Cliff is part of North Shore Central School District. The district was formed in 1953 from the smaller Sea Cliff, Glen Head and Glenwood Landing districts. It has a single high school, North Shore High School.

Sea Cliff School, built in 1912 and expanded in 1926, stands inside the village. The district reported 2,541 K-12 public school students in 2024-25, with a four-year graduation rate of 98%, 95% attendance and a 2% suspension rate. For the wider picture, see the North Shore school districts guide.

Commuting from Sea Cliff by LIRR

Sea Cliff station is on the Oyster Bay Branch, 26.7 miles from Long Island City. The branch splits from the Main Line just east of Mineola and runs north and east to Oyster Bay. West of Mineola, most trains originate or terminate at Jamaica. Once on the branch, all trains run local except for one westbound rush-hour skip-stop service.

Past East Williston the branch is served by diesel-powered locomotive trains. A temporary alternate plan for the branch ran weekdays from September 2 to November 9, 2025; that schedule is past and is not the current timetable. Use the TrainTime app for current schedules. The branch opened in segments between 1865 and 1889. Details on service patterns are in the LIRR Oyster Bay Branch guide.

Harbor, beaches and flood rules

Sea Cliff has its own beach, 16 neighborhood parks and direct access to the Town of Oyster Bay’s Harry Tappen Beach. Memorial Park, at Prospect and Sea Cliff Avenues, has sweeping views of Hempstead Harbor, Long Island Sound and the distant shores of New York and Connecticut. Hempstead Harbor forms the northernmost part of the boundary between the Nassau County towns of Oyster Bay on the east and North Hempstead on the west.

Tappen Beach is owned by the Town of Oyster Bay. The village code covers Beaches, Parks and Public Areas at sections 43-1 to 43-5 and Flood Damage Prevention at sections 68-1 to 68-23. Census figures give the village 2.0 square miles of total area, water included; the land community is about one square mile.

Village government and services

Sea Cliff incorporated as a village in 1883, when the growing community wanted home rule powers and more control over local affairs. It is a village within the Town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County. An elected Mayor and four elected Village Trustees govern it. It lies in New York’s 3rd congressional district.

The village moved its government offices to the current location in 1968, and the Sea Cliff Museum opened in the same building later in the 1970s. The Sea Cliff Village Library first opened in 1894 and is one of the 54 member libraries of the Nassau Library System. Village Hall’s phone line is 516-671-0080.