Todt Hill sits at the literal top of Staten Island — at 410 feet, it is the highest natural point along the Atlantic coast south of Maine — and it sits at the top of the Staten Island real estate market too. If you are reading this, you are probably either looking at a house up here or thinking about selling one, and you want to know what the neighborhood is actually like in 2026, what homes are selling for, and how to play the market correctly. This is the complete guide.

How much does it cost to buy a house in Todt Hill in 2026?

Todt Hill is consistently the most expensive zip code on Staten Island. Single-family homes routinely trade in the $1.5M–$3M range, and the upper end of the neighborhood — large Tudor and Colonial homes on multi-acre lots along Todt Hill Road, Four Corners Road, and Flagg Place — pushes well past $3.5M. New construction or recently renovated estates have crossed $5M in the last 24 months. Median price per square foot in 2026 sits roughly two to three times the borough median, and that premium reflects lot size, privacy, school district perception, and distance from highway noise. If you want a real number for a specific block, run a home affordability calculation against your income first, then build the comp set from there.

What is it like to actually live in Todt Hill day to day?

Quiet. The defining feature of Todt Hill is the relative silence — winding tree-lined streets, large setbacks, deep front yards, and almost no commercial frontage inside the neighborhood proper. You drive everywhere; this is not a walking neighborhood. Most residents head down the hill to Hylan Boulevard or New Dorp Lane for groceries, restaurants, and shopping, or to the Staten Island Mall on Richmond Avenue for the bigger trips. The pace is suburban and family-oriented despite being technically inside New York City — and that contrast is exactly why people pay the premium.

What schools serve Todt Hill?

Todt Hill falls primarily inside School District 31. Public school zoning generally feeds into PS 35 and IS 24, with Tottenville High School and Susan Wagner High School on the high school side depending on where exactly the address sits. The neighborhood is also in close range of well-regarded private and parochial options — Staten Island Academy, Notre Dame Academy, Monsignor Farrell, and St. Joseph by-the-Sea are all reachable. School district perception is one of the bigger drivers of the Todt Hill premium, especially for families relocating from Brooklyn or Manhattan. Verify the current zone for any specific address with the NYC Department of Education zone-finder before assuming.

How is the commute from Todt Hill in 2026?

Honest answer: the commute is the trade-off. From Todt Hill to Lower Manhattan via the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge and the BQE, you are looking at 45–75 minutes by car depending on time of day. Express bus options — primarily the SIM lines from stops along Richmond Road or Slosson Avenue — run into Manhattan and average about an hour. The Staten Island Ferry from St. George is a 15-minute drive (or a short bus ride) and a 25-minute boat ride, then a quick subway ride at Whitehall. Many residents structure work-from-home around two or three in-office days specifically to make the commute viable. If you can flex on schedule, the trade is worth it. If you are doing five days in a Manhattan office at fixed hours, look at this honestly.

Should I buy a home in Todt Hill in 2026 or wait?

Inventory in Todt Hill is structurally tight — the lots are large, owners hold for decades, and there is no new construction at scale. That tightness has held the floor under prices even when other parts of the borough have softened. If you find the right house and your financing makes sense at current rates, waiting for prices to drop materially is unlikely to pay off in this neighborhood. Run the math on rent vs. buy with our NYC rent-vs-buy calculator, model your monthly with the NYC closing cost calculator, and make the call from there. The right answer depends on your timeline, your liquidity, and whether you actually want to live up the hill.

How do I sell a home in Todt Hill for the right number?

Pricing strategy matters more in Todt Hill than almost anywhere else on the island, because the comp set is small and the buyer pool is specific. The wrong list price either chases buyers away — these buyers do their homework — or anchors at a number that leaves money on the table. The Bridge and Boro pricing process pulls active and sold comps from SIBOR FlexMLS, normalizes for lot size and finish level (Todt Hill comps are not apples-to-apples), and recommends a price band rather than a single number. Marketing is built around drone, professional video, premium MLS placement, the 4,000-subscriber Bridge and Boro email list, and direct reach into the Brooklyn buyer pool that often pays the top of the Todt Hill market.

Companion guide: Living in Park Slope, Brooklyn in 2026 — the cross-borough version of this guide for Brooklyn’s premium brownstone neighborhood.