Staten Island’s three shores, explained

People on Staten Island give directions by shore. North Shore, Mid-Island, South Shore. It is the first thing you will hear from anyone who lives here and the last thing you will find on a map, because the shores are not official. There is no boundary line, no sign, and no agreement at the edges. Ask two people where Mid-Island stops and you will get two answers.

What the shores do describe accurately is how the island was built. The north end went up first, close to the ferry, and it is the densest and oldest part of the borough. The south end was farmland and shoreline into living memory and it went up last, which is why the houses there are newer and the lots are bigger. The middle filled in between them.

This guide covers what each shore actually contains, what the housing stock looks like, and how long it takes to get off the island. Where the shore boundaries get vague, the zip code is the precise unit, so each section names its zips and links to the page for each one.

The North Shore

Zip codes 10301, 10302, 10303 and 10310, plus the northern half of 10304.

• 10301 St. George, New Brighton, Tompkinsville and Silver Lake
• 10302 Port Richmond and Elm Park
• 10303 Mariners Harbor, Graniteville, Arlington and Port Ivory
• 10310 West Brighton, Randall Manor and Livingston
• 10304 Stapleton, Clifton, Concord, Grasmere and Emerson Hill

This is the oldest built-up part of the island and it looks like it. Housing runs from attached and semi-attached row houses near the water through free standing Victorians on the hills behind. 10310 holds some of the oldest housing stock in the borough. 10303 is among the most affordable entry points on the island. 10301 is the most walkable corner of Staten Island, which is a low bar in a borough built for cars, but it is real.

Getting off the island from here is the easiest it gets. The Staten Island Ferry runs from St. George to Whitehall in Lower Manhattan, free, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It runs every 15 or 20 minutes through the weekday rush periods, 6:00am to 9:30am and 3:30pm to 8:00pm, and every 30 minutes the rest of the time including weekends.

The Staten Island Railway also starts at St. George and the terminal connects directly to the ferry. Worth knowing before you look anywhere else on the island: St. George and Tompkinsville are the only two railway stations with turnstiles. Ride between any other two stations on the line and there is no fare to pay.

Mid-Island

Zip codes 10314, 10305, 10306 and 10311.

• 10314 New Springville, Bulls Head, Willowbrook, Westerleigh and Travis
• 10305 South Beach, Arrochar, Dongan Hills, Rosebank and Shore Acres
• 10306 New Dorp, Oakwood, Midland Beach, Bay Terrace and Richmondtown
• 10311 Bloomfield and Chelsea

10314 is the largest zip in the borough by population and it is where most of the island's retail sits. 10306 is one of the largest by area. Between them they hold a lot of the borough's everyday housing stock, mostly detached and semi-detached houses built through the middle of the last century.

Two things to know before you search here.

10305 is waterfront adjacent along its eastern edge. Check the flood zone on any specific address before you make an offer, because it varies street by street and it changes what you will pay to insure the place.

10311 is almost entirely industrial and commercial. Residential listings there are rare, and if you are searching Staten Island by zip code it is the one that will come back empty.

Mid-Island is the part of the borough where the car does the work. The railway runs along the eastern side, so New Dorp, Oakwood, Grant City, Dongan Hills and Old Town have stations. Everything west of that is express bus and driving.

The South Shore

Zip codes 10307, 10308, 10309 and 10312.

• 10307 Tottenville
• 10308 Great Kills
• 10309 Prince's Bay, Woodrow, Rossville, Charleston and Pleasant Plains
• 10312 Annadale, Eltingville, Huguenot, Arden Heights and Greenridge

This is the newest part of the island and the most suburban in built form. Detached houses on larger lots, more off street parking, more recent construction. 10309 in particular is where you find the newest building stock. 10312 is the busiest resale market on the island, so if you want the most choice at any given moment, that is usually where it is.

10308 has Great Kills Harbor, the marina and Great Kills Park on its doorstep. 10307 sits at the southern tip of the island and Ward's Point, at its edge, is the southernmost land in New York State. We have written up Tottenville street by street if you want one South Shore neighbourhood in detail.

The trade is commute. The railway reaches all of the South Shore and runs 24 hours, but Tottenville to St. George is about 40 minutes on the train before you have even boarded the ferry. Express buses run direct to Manhattan instead, the SIM2 to Lower Manhattan and the SIM25 and SIM26 to Midtown. Express bus fares are higher than the local fare, which is worth budgeting for on a page that also tells you the ferry is free.

The shore is the conversation, the zip is the search

Shore names are how people talk. Zip codes are how listings are filed, how taxes are assessed, and how you will actually search. When a zip straddles two shores, and several do, the zip is the answer that does not move.

There are 13 residential zip codes on Staten Island. The Staten Island zip code map covers all of them, and each has its own page with current listings and what that zip is selling for.

10313 comes up sometimes. It is not a residential delivery zip and there is nothing to see there.

What we can tell you

We sell in most of these zips and we do not pretend to know the ones we do not work. The neighborhoods we work is the honest list, and the guides behind it are written street by street rather than summarised from a distance.

If you want to know what a specific block is like, or what a house on it is worth, call. Frank Bergen, 347-567-7153.

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