Best Places06002, CT Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood inside ZIP code 06002, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

06002 ranks 7,514th of 33,110 U.S. zip codes on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on civic engagement by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.

#7,514
of 33,110 zip codes
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 33,110 zip codes
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in 06002

Map of the best neighborhoods in the 06002 area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.

06002's strengths and weaknesses

Top 3%Civic engagement
Top 5%Fast internet
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare 06002 with other zip codes.

Where 06002 ranks high

  • Voter turnoutBetter than 99% of zip codes
  • Internet speedBetter than 95% of zip codes
  • TransitBetter than 89% of zip codes
  • Big-city accessBetter than 88% of zip codes
  • Low vacancyBetter than 87% of zip codes

Where 06002 ranks low

  • Low property taxBetter than only 4% of zip codes
  • Nice weatherabout 57 pleasant days a year, better than only 4% of zip codes
  • State fiscal healthBetter than only 7% of zip codes
  • Cheap childcare$1,463 a month, better than only 8% of zip codes
  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 12% of zip codes

What it costs to buy a home in 06002

A household needs to earn about $89,000 a year to comfortably buy the median 06002 home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $99,744, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$89,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$2,077
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $293,800 home
Median rent
$1,860
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$1,498
Property tax$481
Homeowners insurance$98

Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses 06002's effective rate of 1.96%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.

Renting versus buying

At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 6 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in 06002

06002 runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.

Median age
50
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
28%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.3
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1813%
18 to 3420%
35 to 4920%
50 to 6419%
65 and older28%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for 06002.


Who works in 06002, and how

Work in 06002 centers on health care & social and finance & insurance. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.

Work from home
18%
above the national average
Unemployment
4.4%
about the national average
Job growth
+1.0%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social22%
Finance & insurance13%
Manufacturing11%
Professional & technical8%
Transportation & warehousing6%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 76%
  • Work from home 18%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 6%

Life in 06002

06002 has more parkland per resident than 87% of zip codes. The coast is about 46 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of 06002 and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
81
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 37.6 per 10,000 residents, more than 55% of zip codes
Coffee shops
11
about 5.1 per 10,000 residents, more than 67% of zip codes
Parkland
195 acres
about 9.1 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 87% of zip codes
To the coast
46 min
drive to the nearest ocean beaches

What the weather is like in 06002, month by month

06002 sees roughly 57 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 42, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January42°32°23°
April63°51°39°
July88°77°66°
October69°56°45°

Flying in and out of 06002

Bradley International sits about 8 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 3.3 million passengers in 2025, with 92 nonstop destinations.

Nearest airport
BDL
Bradley International, about 8 miles
Airport size
Medium hub
55th-busiest in the US, 92 nonstop destinations
Average drive
11 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around 06002

Schools across 06002 average a D+, better than 17% of zip codes.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every 06002 school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


06002 measure by measure

Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare 06002 against the other 33,109 zip codes.


Who 06002 suits

Families

Schools land around the 17th percentile.

See the families priority ↑

Remote workers

Cost of living against local pay beats 84% of zip codes, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 18% already work from home.

See the remote-work priority ↑

Retirees

Health care access beats 76%.

See the retirees priority ↑


Common questions about living in 06002

Is 06002 a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, 06002 ranks 7,514th of 33,110 zip codes. It scores highest on civic engagement, fast internet, and transit, and lowest on property taxes and the weather. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is 06002 expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $293,800. The overall cost of living runs about 7% below the national average. Set against a $99,744 median income, cost of living beats 84% of zip codes.

Is 06002 safe?

06002 is safer than 34% of zip codes. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $304 per resident a year.

What is the weather like in 06002?

July highs average about 88 degrees, and January highs near 42 with lows near 23. That works out to about 57 pleasant days a year, more than 4% of zip codes.

Is 06002 good for families?

Schools beat 17% of zip codes, crime safety beats 34%, and childcare runs $1,463 a month.


Compare 06002 with other zip codes


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to 06002. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in 06002 represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.

06002 detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for 06002: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in 06002: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of 06002: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in 06002: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

06002 detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.