Riverhead, New York.
Typical home $638,350 (+4.7% in a year), asking rent $3,227 . New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$247 (+8%) since Nov 2023.
- 1 year
- Up $28,744 +5%
- $609,606$638,350 since Sep 2025
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Riverhead$3,351
- New York$2,755
- United States$1,922
Typical home values in Riverhead, NY rose 4.7% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Riverhead, Suffolk County, New York
Riverhead, in Suffolk County, had 14,993 people in the 2020 census. Half its households earn more than $83,008 a year and half less, against $130,686 across Suffolk County; 11% of its people live below the poverty line. 61% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 39% are rented. Unemployment in Suffolk County was 4.1% in August 2026, and the county had 1.5% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then professional services.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Riverhead is a small community on Long Island, in Suffolk County, where residents tend to be somewhat older than in many places and most homes are lived in by their owners. Household incomes run well below the county's, and typical home values are high. Winters are cold and summers warm, with rain and melted snow spread through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by professional and business services, the building trades and shops. Among the biggest workplaces in Riverhead are the Riverhead Central School District, Target and Atlantis Marine World. Few adults work from home, and the typical commute is a moderate one.
Things to do. In or beside town, the Long Island Aquarium and Exhibition Center and the Railroad Museum of Long Island are both close at hand, and the Peconic River runs through the area. A short drive away is Wildwood State Park, a protected area for walking and time outdoors.
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- 5,444households
- 19%of adults have a degree
- 11%below the poverty line
- 24 mintypical commute
- 6%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Suffolk County had 689,858 jobs in 2025, 1.5% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 40° and lows near 26°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 67°. About 47 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Riverhead Rsch Farm weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Riverhead
- Riverhead Central School DistrictSchool district1,004FTE
- TargetDiscount department stores223
- Atlantis Marine WorldAquariums202
- Frito-LayConfectionery merchant wholesalers168
- Lowe's Companies, INCHomecenter139
- BJ's Wholesale Club, Inc.Warehouse club and supercenters132
- Northwell88
- Riverhead Building Supply78
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 19 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,522 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- Coastal floodingRelatively moderate
- HurricanesRelatively moderate
- Cold wavesRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Riverhead’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively moderate. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Suffolk County and the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA metro.
Riverhead home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Riverhead$638,350
- New York$524,942
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 5 Riverhead listings — the market is cooling.
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Riverhead19.97%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Riverhead88
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Riverhead26
Zip codes with a Riverhead address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Riverhead — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.