Living in Gravesend: rent, commute and grades

Brooklyn · Updated October 2026

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Rent in Gravesend

$1,419 a month

Type of homeA room in a 2-bedroom, shared by two

B+Overall

Grades compare NYC neighborhoods with each other. How the grades work.

B-Walkability
The average home has 4.7 of 5 everyday needs within a 10-minute walk (grocery store, restaurant, cafe, subway station, park) and about 173 places to eat or shop.
B-Food and shopping
Within a 10-minute walk of the average home: about 40 places to eat, 16 kinds of cuisine, 4.6 large grocery stores and 100 open storefronts.
Residents: Groceries in Gravesend are cheap. Resident, Dec 2025
C-Parks and green space
92% of residents live within a 10-minute walk of a park of an acre or more, with about 110 acres of parkland within 1 km and about 357 street trees within 300 m of the average home.

C+Community
19% of households moved in since 2018, 5% are roommates sharing a home, 16% of residents are 22 to 34, and there are about 18 cafes and bars within a 10-minute walk of the average home.
B-Nightlife
About 12 bars, clubs and restaurants licensed to serve alcohol on site within a 10-minute walk of the average home.

A-Safety
3.2 murders, robberies, felony assaults and burglaries were reported per 1,000 residents in 2025 (433 in all).
Residents: Gravesend near the N and F lines feels safe. Resident, Dec 2025
AQuiet
23 noise complaints to 311 per 1,000 residents in 2025, not counting helicopter complaints, and counting each address at most 12 days a year. That measures how often people complain, not how loud it is.
Residents: Off the N and F lines in Gravesend it is quiet. Resident, Dec 2025
B-Building upkeep
17.8 serious housing code violations (class B or C) were issued in 2025 per 100 rented homes, and there were 5.6 heat or hot water complaints per 100 rented homes.

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Off the N and F lines in Gravesend it is quiet.
Resident, Dec 2025
Gravesend is especially quiet, in a residential, family-oriented part of Brooklyn.
Not a resident, Feb 2024

By subway or bus, arriving by 9:00 on a weekday:Under 30 min30 to 45 min45 to 60 minOver an hourGravesend

Residents: Living in Gravesend suits people who are fine with a long commute, not those who want to be in the action. Former resident, Dec 2025

Gravesend was founded by Lady Deborah Moody, an Englishwoman who came from a colony at Lynn, Massachusetts. Its charter, affirmed by the Dutch governor in 1645, was the first in the New World to list a woman patentee and one of the first to expressly allow freedom of religion. Source
Gravesend began as the only English community in a mostly Dutch area, a status that lasted until the 1720s. Source
Gravesend's 1645 town plan put the houses inside a walled center split into quadrants by two roads that still exist: the old Gravesend Road, now McDonald Avenue, and Gravesend Neck Road. Source
Around the old town center, Gravesend is mostly low-density houses, with industrial and commercial uses along McDonald Avenue, 86th Street and Bay Parkway. Gravesend Neck Road itself is lined mainly with two- and three-story one- and two-family homes. Source
The Van Sicklen House, made a city landmark in April 2016, is among the oldest surviving Dutch-American houses in Brooklyn and the borough's only known 18th-century house built largely of stone. It stands on part of Lady Moody's house lot, across from the old town cemetery. Source
The Old Gravesend Cemetery, on the block bounded by Village Road South, Gravesend Neck Road, Van Sicklen Avenue and McDonald Avenue, is one of the smallest cemeteries in the city and holds the graves of most of the original patentees. Source
Gravesend Library opened in 1962 and was renovated in 2001. It is a split-level branch with a separate children's floor. Source