Are you sick of being a city slicker?
Do you long for life in suburban New Jersey? Where you can drive your overly-large vehicle to the store for groceries, and schlep the kids around to practices and appointments without worrying about a parking space?
We do too.
Public transportation is…icky at times. When you have to call an Uber to get to urgent care on a Friday night, that gets old after a while.
So, the question is, if you wanted to move out to the suburbs of Trenton, where would you go? And how would you decide on the ranking factors to help you pick which New Jersey suburb was best?
No worries. We got it all figured out here.
These are the 10 best suburbs in the Garden State:
- North Caldwell (Photos)
- Woodcliff Lake (Photos)
- Haddonfield (Photos)
- Oradell (Photos)
- Demarest (Photos)
- Glen Rock (Photos)
- Fair Haven (Photos)
- New Providence (Photos)
- Chatham (Photos)
- Westfield (Photos)
North Caldwell is the place to be when it comes to being a soccer mom in suburban New Jersey.
So if you’re thinking of packing up your mini van and making a move to a quiet place to live in New Jersey, we’ve got you covered.
Keep on reading for a detailed methodology. Or, check out the best places to live in New Jersey and the best places to raise a family in New Jersey.
How do you determine which suburb is the best in New Jersey anyways?
To give you the best suburbs in New Jersey, we have to look at a handful of metrics. Of course, we want to measure the type of people who live in each city, and make some assumptions about what’s a “best city” and what isn’t.
So we researched the internet for a database that contains all that information.
How we crunched the suburb numbers for the Garden State
We threw a lot of criteria at this one in order to get the best, most complete results possible. Using U.S. Census data produced for the state of New Jersey, we looked at every town between 5,000 and 200,000 residents, and within 30 miles of a city that’s over 200,000 people (In other words, suburbs).
We paid particular attention to:
- Median Home Values
- Median Income
- Population Density (Higher is Better)
- Unemployment Rates
- Commute Time
- Education Levels
- Health Insurance Coverage
- Poverty Rates
We ranked each suburb in New Jersey across a number of criteria from one to 158, with one being the best.
We then took the average rank across all criteria, with the town posting the lowest overall score being crowned the winner of the title “Best Suburb To Live In New Jersey”.
The result is some of the safest, quiet, and awesome places to live in New Jersey
Read on to see why North Caldwell is the ‘burb with the most, while Lindenwold is probably not the best place to live in New Jersey.
1. North Caldwell
Population: 6,519
Median Income: $188,897
Median Home Price: $713,500
North Caldwell is located 10 miles north of Newark.
2. Woodcliff Lake
Population: 5,844
Median Income: $150,862
Median Home Price: $756,100
Woodcliff Lake is located 21 miles north of Newark.
3. Haddonfield
Population: 11,444
Median Income: $135,700
Median Home Price: $487,700
Haddonfield is located 9 miles south of Philadelphia.
4. Oradell
Population: 8,160
Median Income: $145,761
Median Home Price: $560,100
Oradell is located 17 miles north of Newark.
5. Demarest
Population: 5,007
Median Income: $150,139
Median Home Price: $652,800
Demarest is located 19 miles north of Newark.
6. Glen Rock
Population: 11,887
Median Income: $159,247
Median Home Price: $610,600
Glen Rock is located 16 miles north of Newark.
7. Fair Haven
Population: 6,033
Median Income: $161,131
Median Home Price: $664,500
Fair Haven is located 21 miles south of New York.
8. New Providence
Population: 12,434
Median Income: $139,375
Median Home Price: $576,000
New Providence is located 12 miles west of Newark.
9. Chatham
Population: 9,030
Median Income: $150,625
Median Home Price: $729,000
Chatham is located 11 miles west of Newark.
10. Westfield
Population: 30,438
Median Income: $150,486
Median Home Price: $689,400
Westfield is located 10 miles west of Newark.
There You Have It – The Best Suburbs In New Jersey
Here’s a look at the worst suburbs in New Jersey according to the data:
- Lindenwold
- Pine Hill
- East Orange
For more New Jersey reading, check out:
- 10 Safest Places In New Jersey
- 10 Worst Places To Live In New Jersey
- 10 Most Ghetto Cities In New Jersey