{"id":340219,"date":"2026-09-07T21:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T21:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/340219\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T21:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T21:52:09","slug":"new-york-town-le-ray-named-one-of-americas-worst-places-to-live","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/340219\/","title":{"rendered":"New York town, Le Ray, named one of America’s worst places to live"},"content":{"rendered":"

A small town wedged against one of the busiest Army posts in the country has earned an unwanted distinction as one of the least livable places <\/a>in the United States.<\/p>\n

LeRay, New York, zip code 13637, sits just outside of far-upstate Watertown and contains Fort Drum \u2014\u00a0the sprawling military base fueling the area\u2019s economy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The embattled burg is the lone Empire State entry on AARP\u2019s Livability Index<\/a> bottom 10 \u2014\u00a0a list otherwise dominated by scorched, isolated pockets of the Sun Belt.<\/p>\n

LeRay is adjacent to the city of Watertown, New York (pictured). The town, home to Fort Drum, is the only Empire State entry on a list of worst zipcodes in the US. Craig Sanders \/ Facebook<\/p>\n

But Le Ray breaks the mold. While its fellow bottom dwellers struggle with rock bottom home prices and vanishing job markets, Le Ray\u2019s trouble runs the opposite direction. <\/p>\n

Housing there is expensive relative to what residents actually earn \u2014\u00a0not to mention the fact that the water underneath<\/a> it all has its own serious problems, the report stated.<\/p>\n

AARP\u2019s index, which grades communities on a 100 point scale using 61 different measures across categories like housing, health, transportation and the environment, gave LeRay a score of just 38. <\/p>\n

That ties it with Las Vegas-adjacent Pahrump, Nevada for fourth worst among mid-sized communities nationwide \u2014\u00a0and puts it well below the national average of 50.<\/p>\n

LeRay\u2019s monthly housing costs average $1,489, compared with an $890 median across AARP\u2019s comparison group. <\/p>\n

Watertown-adjacent LeRay\u2019s troubles netted it a score of just 38 out of 100, tying for fourth worst nationally. Craig Sanders \/ Facebook<\/p>\n

Unlike other towns on the list, its problem isn\u2019t cheap housing and few jobs. Monthly housing costs average $1,489, a 67 percent premium over the comparison median of $890. Kat O’Shea \/ Facebook<\/p>\n

That works out to a premium of roughly 67 percent, an eye popping gap for the rural community far closer to Canada than NYC.<\/p>\n

Then there is the water. Nearly a third of LeRay\u2019s 25,736 residents, 32.1 percent, are exposed to drinking water violations, according to the index. <\/p>\n

The town\u2019s score for civic engagement, one of the seven categories AARP tracks, came in at just six, among the worst of any community measured anywhere in the country.<\/p>\n

Nearly a third of residents face drinking water violations, and its civic engagement score is among the lowest recorded anywhere. Craig Sanders \/ Facebook<\/p>\n

Real estate analysts who reviewed the AARP data pointed to a familiar driver behind military town price spikes: the Pentagon\u2019s Basic Allowance for Housing, a monthly stipend paid to service members to cover rent or a mortgage based on rank, dependents and local market rates.<\/p>\n

Landlords in towns that ring big bases have long been known to price rentals up toward whatever the government guarantees troops can pay, regardless of what civilian neighbors actually earn.<\/p>\n

Fort Drum\u2019s on post housing itself is privatized, operated under a decades long agreement by Winn Companies, a national developer and property manager that oversees military family housing at installations across the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Analysts point to the military\u2019s Basic Allowance for Housing as a likely driver, since it sets a rent ceiling landlords can price toward regardless of local wages. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Off post, the surrounding market tells a similar story. <\/p>\n

A review of current listings near Fort Drum found two and three bedroom units renting anywhere from roughly $1,200 to nearly $1,950 a month, figures that suggest the entire local rental market has adjusted to the military pay scale \u2014\u00a0rather than the wages available in Jefferson County.<\/p>\n

Fort Drum\u2019s on post housing is run by Winn Companies, while nearby rentals track closely with the inflated median. Kat O’Shea \/ Facebook<\/p>\n

That dynamic creates a strange contradiction for a town that, on paper, should be affordable.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some relocation guides aimed at incoming military families describe the Fort Drum and Watertown region as reasonably priced compared with the rest of New York State, a state with among the highest costs of living in the country. <\/p>\n

Against national or rural comparison points, though, LeRay looks like anything but a bargain.<\/p>\n

Nationally, several communities on AARP\u2019s bottom 10 list also reported high rates of drinking water violations, including Fortuna Foothills and San Luis, Arizona, both at 43 percent, and Greenville, Mississippi, at 47.5 percent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But LeRay is the only place on the list combining that kind of water exposure with housing costs running well above the norm \u2014\u00a0rather than below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A small town wedged against one of the busiest Army posts in the country has earned an unwanted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[26681,7987,6675,81787,1458,1882,3365,6079,232,75,1722,9,11,10,49,51,50,3610,1491,564,4753,3006,11322,9515,901,9821,817],"class_list":["post-340219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-aarp","tag-america","tag-analysis","tag-analyst","tag-arizona","tag-community","tag-economy","tag-inflation","tag-lifestyle","tag-manhattan","tag-markets","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-public-health","tag-real-estate","tag-rent","tag-rentals","tag-residential-real-estate","tag-study-says","tag-transport","tag-united-states","tag-upstate","tag-upstate-new-york"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}