Is Forest Hills Safe? Queens Livability, Crime & Rent
Forest Hills scores 7.0: a tree-dense neighborhood with strong transit and few housing violations, though noise tempers its appeal.
Forest Hills at a glance
- Borough
- Queens
- Livability score
- 7/10
- Borough rank (NYC Open Data guides)
- #1 of 27
- Safety verdict
- Average
- Crimes (12 mo)
- 3,760
- Subway stations
- 4 (Kew Gardens-Union Tpke, 75 Av, Forest Hills-71 Av)
- Data updated
- 2026-09-14
Is Forest Hills Safe?
Forest Hills, Queens scores 7/10 for overall livability, ranking #1 of 27 Queens neighborhoods scored from NYC Open Data. Forest Hills scores 7.0: a tree-dense neighborhood with strong transit and few housing violations, though noise tempers its appeal.
The livability score draws on HPD housing violations, subway access, NYC Parks' tree inventory and parks, and 311 noise complaints per resident from NYC Open Data, refreshed periodically rather than live. It does not include crime; NYPD complaint and shooting figures are on the Forest Hills safety page. Safety varies by block — check a specific Forest Hills address below for a block-level breakdown.
Score Overview
Vertical line = borough median. Scale: 0-10.
Practical measures HPD housing violations per residential lot over the last 12 months (higher = fewer violations). Borough medians are computed across DwellCheck's Queens neighborhood guides.
Neighborhood Character
You'll find yourself in a heavily treed neighborhood—189 trees within a 200-meter radius create a sheltered, suburban feel despite the urban density. One-family houses sit on 70% of residential tax lots, with walk-up (5%) and elevator (4%) apartment buildings on few lots, giving Forest Hills a structured, planned appearance that reflects its early 20th-century garden community origins. Parks are distributed across the area—Yellowstone Park, MacDonald Park, and Russell Sage Playground among them, and the 3 nearest parks average 330 meters from the neighborhood's center —and trees are dense overhead: a tree density rating of 7.0/10. You'll access the E, F, M and R lines at Forest Hills-71 Av, with more stops at 75 Av, 67 Av and Kew Gardens-Union Tpke, for a commute score of 7.5.
Livability & Restoration
Trees
189 trees
Expected in a 200m circle (NYC Parks tree inventory) | Density: 7/10 (city percentile)
In Toronto, 10 more trees on a city block went with a rise in self-rated health comparable to being 7 years younger (Kardan et al., 2015, Scientific Reports). In a cross-sectional study of London boroughs, each additional street tree per km of street went with 1.18 fewer antidepressant prescriptions per 1,000 residents (Taylor et al., 2015, Landscape and Urban Planning).
Park Access
12 parks
NYC Parks properties inside the neighborhood | largest: Yellowstone Park | nearest to the center: MacDonald Park, 87m | 3 nearest average 330m from the neighborhood's center
Acoustic Quality
4/10
Noise proxy score (higher = quieter)
Environmental noise exposure increases the occurrence of hypertension and cardiovascular disease; WHO's night-noise guidelines call average outdoor night noise above 55 dB increasingly dangerous for public health (Basner et al., 2014, The Lancet).
What is the ART Score?
ART stands for Attention Restoration Theory (Kaplan & Kaplan, 1989) — the framework environmental psychologists use to measure whether a place helps your brain recover from mental fatigue, or pushes it deeper into overload. Cities deplete directed attention (the effortful focus you use at work); exposure to restorative environments replenishes it.
DwellCheck uses the idea in two separate places, and they measure different things. The neighborhood ART score below comes from neighborhood-wide data: up to 5 points from tree density (a city percentile) and up to 5 from how few 311 noise complaints there are per resident. An address report has no ART score. It runs the Wellness checks below, and their points go into the address’s overall score.
Within a point of the Queens median.
What an address report checks instead (Wellness)
- ±Sensory environment. A calm score minus a busy score, each starting at 50. Busy: a firehouse within 100m (+15) or 200m (+8), and 311 noise complaints within 200m over 6 months (15+ adds 5, 40+ adds 12, 80+ adds 20, and 3 more at 20+ complaints that include vehicle or street noise). Calm: a library (+15), community garden (+12) or public plaza or atrium (POPS; +15 indoor, +8 outdoor) within 200m, and a park within 300m (+10; +15 at 1+ acre; +20 at 5+ acres). A difference of +20 or more adds 8 points; −10 to −29 costs 2; −30 or less costs 4. Bars, museums, tourists and foot traffic are not counted.
- +Third places (Oldenburg, 1989). Public libraries, public plazas and atriums (POPS) and community gardens within 400m: 1–2 add 5 points, 3 or more add 10. Cafés and community centers are not counted. In a meta-analysis of longitudinal studies, loneliness or social isolation went with a 29% higher risk of incident coronary heart disease (Valtorta et al., 2016, Heart).
- 0Street vitality (Jacobs, 1961). Permitted block parties, farmers markets and similar community events in the borough over the past 12 months. The event data has no coordinates, so this is a borough-wide count shown for context. It doesn’t change the score.
Health mechanism. The theory holds that natural settings let directed attention recover. The evidence is mixed: a systematic review of 31 studies (Ohly et al., 2016, Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part B) found that time in natural environments improved 3 of 13 pooled attention measures (Digit Span Forward, Digit Span Backward and Trail Making Test B) and showed no marked benefit on the other 10.
Theoretical foundations. Kaplan & Kaplan (1989), The Experience of Nature; Jacobs (1961), The Death and Life of Great American Cities; Oldenburg (1989), The Great Good Place.
Transit & Commute
Subway Stations
Commute Score
7.5/10
Borough median: 3.5/10
Outdoor & Green Space
Avg Tree Count
189
Trees expected in a 200m circle
Tree Density
7/10
1,504 trees per km² in NYC Parks' tree inventory (street and park trees); city percentile, 1 = sparsest
Largest Parks In or Near the Neighborhood
- Yellowstone Park
- Real Good Playground
- Russell Sage Playground
- Playground Sixty Two LXII
- MacDonald Park
Nearest to the neighborhood's center: MacDonald Park, about 87m. The 3 nearest NYC Parks properties average 330m from the center (approximate park centers, not entrances).
Practical Living
Practical (HPD violations): 8/10 (Queens median 8). It measures HPD housing violations per residential lot over the last 12 months (higher = fewer violations).
Building Mix (Residential Tax Lots)
Share of the 7,085 residential tax lots in the neighborhood by PLUTO building class (NYC Department of City Planning).
Who Forest Hills Is For
Green-space seekers without car dependency concerns
Tree density 7.0/10, 189 trees per 200m and five nearby parks drive an outdoor score of 6.9; art/livability score of 5.0 beats the borough median of 4.1
Pros & Cons
Strengths
Above-median tree coverage and tree density
189 trees within 200m radius, tree density 7.0/10—among the most in Queens
Few housing violations
Practical score of 8 (vs. borough median 8.0) reflects a low rate of HPD housing violations per residential building
ART/Livability above borough baseline
Art/Livability score 5.0 vs. borough median 4.1
Trade-offs
Moderate noise complaint volume
5,118 noise complaints (Moderate category)
Score Any Address in Forest Hills
Get detailed livability scores based on building health, transit access, safety, noise levels, and 15+ NYC data sources.
Search an Address in Forest HillsFrequently Asked Questions about Forest Hills
1Is Forest Hills safe?
By NYPD data, Forest Hills is rated "Average", with a lower crime rate per resident than 50% of Queens neighborhoods. 3,760 crime incidents and 1 shooting incident over the past 12 months. See the safety page for the full breakdown.
2What is the average rent in Forest Hills?
Rents in Forest Hills, Queens vary significantly by building and apartment type. Market pricing isn't aggregated for this neighborhood yet; use DwellCheck to research specific addresses for HPD registration, HPD violations, and other building-level records. DwellCheck doesn't show rent-stabilization status; request the apartment's rent history from DHCR for that.
3How is transit access in Forest Hills?
Forest Hills has a commute score of 7.5/10. 4 subway stations serve the area: Kew Gardens-Union Tpke, 75 Av, Forest Hills-71 Av.
4What are the best streets in Forest Hills?
The best streets depend on your priorities. Use DwellCheck to compare specific addresses across livability, safety, transit, and environmental factors.
5What is Forest Hills known for?
Forest Hills sits in Queens and ranks #1 of 27 Queens neighborhoods scored from NYC Open Data on DwellCheck's livability score (7/10). It's served by 4 subway stations (Kew Gardens-Union Tpke, 75 Av, Forest Hills-71 Av). Forest Hills scores 7.0: a tree-dense neighborhood with strong transit and few housing violations, though noise tempers its appeal.
6What is it like to live in Forest Hills?
DwellCheck scores Forest Hills, Queens from NYC Open Data on practical (HPD housing violations per residential lot over the last 12 months (higher = fewer violations)), commute (subway stations and lines in the neighborhood), ART (tree density and 311 noise complaints per resident), outdoor (trees and park proximity). Forest Hills's composite is 7/10. Forest Hills scores 7.0: a tree-dense neighborhood with strong transit and few housing violations, though noise tempers its appeal. For the block-by-block view, run any specific Forest Hills address through DwellCheck.
7Where is Forest Hills?
Forest Hills is in Queens, New York City. DwellCheck maps it to the Forest Hills Neighborhood Tabulation Area (QN0602), which falls in the Census tabulation area that approximates Queens Community District 6 (Forest Hills-Rego Park). Its main ZIP codes are 11375 and 11374. Subway stations in the neighborhood include Kew Gardens-Union Tpke, 75 Av and Forest Hills-71 Av.
8What ZIP code is Forest Hills in?
Forest Hills spans ZIP codes 11375 (82% of residential units) and 11374 (18%). Shares are of the 43,687 residential units in the Forest Hills Neighborhood Tabulation Area (QN0602), from NYC PLUTO 26v2 tax-lot records.
9Can you walk around Forest Hills at night?
Forest Hills is classified as "Average" by NYPD complaint data. Over the past 12 months it recorded 1 shooting incident and 3,760 total crime incidents. Walking at night carries the same risk profile as anywhere in NYC: stay on commercial corridors with foot traffic, avoid empty side streets after midnight, and prefer subway lines that run 24/7.
10Is Forest Hills dangerous?
By NYPD data, Forest Hills is rated "Average", with a lower crime rate per resident than 50% of Queens neighborhoods. 3,760 crime incidents over 12 months. Block-level risk varies; check the address-level safety score for any specific street or building.
11What parts of Forest Hills should I avoid?
NYPD complaint records carry approximate incident coordinates, but a neighborhood total can't tell you which blocks drive it, so we don't publish an "avoid this street" list. For a specific block, use DwellCheck's address-level safety score, which counts NYPD crime complaints within a 300m radius of the building over the latest 12 months of published data and compares that count with the borough average.
12Is Forest Hills a good place to live?
Forest Hills scores 7/10 for overall livability and has a lower crime rate per resident than 50% of Queens neighborhoods. Forest Hills scores 7.0: a tree-dense neighborhood with strong transit and few housing violations, though noise tempers its appeal. Whether it's a good fit depends on what you weight: families, solo renters, and remote workers each prioritize different factors (noise, transit access, parks, building quality).
13What is the average DwellScore in Forest Hills?
The composite score is 7.0. Practical (8.0), commute (7.5) and outdoor (6.9) are the leading categories.
14How safe is Forest Hills compared to the rest of Queens?
It has a lower crime rate per resident than 50% of Queens neighborhoods. Crime held roughly stable over 12 months (+2.7%, 3,760 total).
15What transit options serve Forest Hills?
The E, F, M and R lines serve the neighborhood at Forest Hills-71 Av, 75 Av, 67 Av and Kew Gardens-Union Tpke. The commute score of 7.5 is among the highest in Queens.
16Why is the practical score so high?
Practical score of 8 reflects a low rate of HPD housing violations per residential building.
17What are noise levels like?
5,118 noise complaints were filed—rated moderate. Apartment buildings along Queens Boulevard and the main avenues carry most of the density and neighbor noise.
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