Shirley, New York.
Typical home $548,142 (+4.9% in a year). New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,737 (+152%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $25,753 +5%
- $522,389$548,142 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $155,622 +40%
- $392,521$548,142 since Sep 2021
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.
- Shirley$2,877
- New York$2,755
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 10 years.
Typical home values in Shirley, NY rose 4.9% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Shirley, Suffolk County, New York
Shirley, in Suffolk County, had 26,360 people in the 2020 census. Half its households earn more than $112,788 a year and half less, against $130,686 across Suffolk County; 6% of its people live below the poverty line. 92% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 8% 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Shirley is a community on Long Island's south side, in Suffolk County, where nearly everyone lives in a home they own. Households here earn somewhat less than across the county as a whole, and a four-year degree is less common among adults than in many places. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month and highs staying just above freezing, while July is the warmest and summers are comfortably warm, and the year brings a fair amount of rain and melted snow.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with others in professional and business services, the building trades and shops. Among the larger workplaces in Shirley are Uncle Wally's, a pastry maker, the supermarket chain King Kullen, and Firematic Supply Company. The commute is fairly long for most people, and only a small number work from home.
Things to do. The Carmans River and the Wertheim National Wildlife Refuge are in or beside town, a natural place for a walk or an hour watching birds. A short drive away are Fire Island National Seashore, a protected stretch of coast, and the Long Island Game Farm, a zoo. Brookhaven State Park is also a short drive off.
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- 8,483households
- 19%of adults have a degree
- 6%below the poverty line
- 33 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 39° and lows near 24°; warmest in July, with highs near 82° and lows near 66°. About 44 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Shirley Brookhaven Airport weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Shirley
- Uncle Wally'sPastries, frozen, manufacturing303
- King KullenSupermarkets69
- Firematic Supply Company HQService establishment equipment and supplies merchant wholesalers50
- Paraco Gas24
- Family Residences and Essential EnterprisesResidential mental health and substance abuse facilities20
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 5 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 466 people in all. 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
- Coastal floodingRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Shirley’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, very low. 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.
Shirley home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Shirley$548,142
- New York$524,942
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 7 Shirley listings, and the typical home goes pending in 31 days — the market is roughly in balance.
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.
- Shirley14.06%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Shirley31
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Shirley96
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Shirley34
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Zip codes with a Shirley address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Shirley — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.